Egyptian Limestone Relief Carved in Shallow Relief

A Fine and Large Egyptian Limestone Relief Carved in Shallow Relief.

Traces of original polychrome.

Old Kingdom / 5th Dynasty / 2454 - 2311 B.C.

Size: 32cm high, 70cm wide, 5cm deep - 12½ ins high, 27½ ins wide, 2 ins deep.

Provenance: Ex Private Swiss collection, acquired mid 1960s and thence by descent.
                     Ex Rupert Wace Limited London.
                     Ex Private London collection.

cf A similar relief with a procession of ‘waiters’ carrying food-stuffs including live birds from the Mastaba of Thefw is illustrated in Prof. Dr. Selim Hassan’s article ‘Mastabas of Ny-ankh-Pepy and Others’ in ‘Excavations at Saqqara, 1937 - 38, Vol. II’ Cairo 1975, plate LXXXVI.

The relief scene from a wall of a tomb depicts in the lower register a procession of offering bearers carrying a variety of birds. Hieroglyphic inscriptions incised before and behind the figure on the left in part referring to the lost figure ‘overseer of the domain, servant of Ka’. The lower part of the upper register shows a figure pulling on a catch net (the legs lean back to counterbalance the weight of the net) and birds with open wings try to escape capture, while the caught birds are shown within the net in the upper right corner. 

Dimensions

Price on application

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This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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