An Egyptian Polychrome Limestone Figure of Hem-Min, 6th Dynasty, 2360-2195 B.C.
Lot Closed
December 17, 01:54 PM GMT
Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
An Egyptian Polychrome Limestone Figure of Hem-Min
6th Dynasty, 2360-2195 B.C.
inscribed "Treasurer of the God, Overseer of the Army, Overseer of the Prospectors, revered with the God," seated on a high-backed chair inscribed on both sides with his names and titles, his hands resting on his knees, and wearing a short pleated kilt and wig of layered trapezoidal curls, his face with prominent chin, outlined lips, and slightly aquiline nose; remains of red pigment on the body and black pigment on the wig.
Height 48.3 cm.
Todros Collection, Luxor, 1959
Alfons Billen, Brussels
Sotheby's, London, December 10th-11th, 1984, no. 180, illus.
Sotheby's, New York, The Charles Pankow Collection of Art, December 8th, 2004, no. 9, illus.
PUBLISHED
Henry George Fischer, "Varia Aegyptiaca," Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt , vol. II, 1963, p. 18 and n. 11
Henry George Fischer, "More about the Smntjw ," Göttinger Miszellen, vol. 84, 1985, pp.25-28, fig. 1 (line drawing of inscriptions)
Henry George Fischer, [addendum and corrigendum to previous article] Göttinger Miszellen, vol. 86, 1985, p. 95
Jaromir Malek, Diana Magee, and Elizabeth Miles, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings VIII. Objects of Provenance not known, Oxford, 1999, no. 801-221-750
This depiction of Hem-Min, a bureaucratic official during Egypt's 6th Dynasty, likely functioned as a ka-statue. Ka-statues were physical representations of the body that functioned as a home for the soul of the deceased in the afterlife. For a larger related example in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, see https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/90718.