Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
AN EGYPTIAN POLYCHROME AND GILT ANTHROPOID INNER COFFIN OF THE SISTRUM-PLAYER TA-GEM-EN-HOR, MACEDONIAN/EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 332-290 B.C.
Auction Closed
December 3, 05:06 PM GMT
Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from an American Private Collection
AN EGYPTIAN POLYCHROME AND GILT ANTHROPOID INNER COFFIN OF THE SISTRUM-PLAYER TA-GEM-EN-HOR, MACEDONIAN/EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 332-290 B.C.
wearing a lower broad beaded collar with Horus-head terminals, broad upper collar of simple bands covering the neck , and long tripartite wig, her finely carved and gilded face with full outlined lips rounded at the corners, and long black eyebrows and cosmetic lines, the three columns of inscription in the frontal panel translating : Words spoken by the sistrum-player of Min, Ta-gem-en-Hor, true-of-voice, daughter of the stolist-priest and 3rd prophet of Min, P[a]-senedjem-ib-nasht, and born of the sistrum-player of Min, Nehem-sy-Bast ,true-of-voice. Made is the good burial on the west of Akhmim”.
Height 192 cm.
Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Antiquités égyptiennes, grecques et romaines appartenant à P. Philip et à divers amateurs: sculptures, peintures, bronzes, étoffes, faiences, figures de Tanagra, verres irisés, April 10th/12th, 1905, no. 8, illus. (in the same sale lot 7 is the wood sarcophagus in which the present inner coffin was originally placed)
Maria Segers, Hoboken, Antwerp, Belgium, acquired on the art market in The Hague in 1964
In a detailed report on the present coffin, Dr. Jonathan P. Elias notes that "In the course of the 4th century B.C., a relatively conservative style of inner anthropoid coffin developed using the non-showy principles once reserved for the outer anthropoid coffins of an earlier era (23rd–26th Dynasties). These emphasized unadorned surfaces, apart from the gilded face, decoratively painted wig and collar designs. Inscriptions tended to be rather terse, often being confined within a rectangle containing three to five short columns located just above the instep. The focus was on a brief formula containing the name of the deceased, titles or honorifics indicating official status, and some indication of parentage. The reduction of surface imagery and texts was intended to reveal the grain of the preserving wood, sometimes high quality cedar, but more often the locally available sycomore fig. In cases where fine wood had not been selected, the surface might be regularized with a red pigment that would emulate its coloring, red for instance suggesting the quality of cedar. That is the case with the coffin of the sistrum-player (temple musician) Ta-gem-en-hor. (...)
On the basis of its style Ta-gem-en-hor’s coffin is classifiable regionally as "Akhmimic"- the cemeteries of Akhmim in the 9th Upper Egyptian Nome being a collection point for some distinct styles being created in the southern part of Middle Egypt and in Upper Egypt proper."
This lot is accompanied by an original copy of the 1905 auction catalogue.