Published Polychrome Glazed Faience Shabti of Sethi-(er)-neheh

Culture: Egyptian

Period: New Kingdom, 19th dynasty, Reign of Rames II, 1279-1213 B.C.

Material: Faience

Dimensions: 12.9 cm high

Price: 10 000 Euro

Ref: 1568

Provenance: Collection Jacob Meier, Fehraltdorf, Switzerland, acquired prior to 26 May 1986. With a copy of the commission agreement with gallery Nefer in Zurich of the same date. Thence exhibited in the Antikenmuseum Basel, collection Ludwig. With a photograph of the exhibition view. Published in the catalogue: "Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig. Die Ägyptische Abteilung", p. 145, no. 102.

Condition: Broken just above the feet and without any missing parts and almost invisibly reassembled.

Description: Rare, multicoloured glazed and elaborately worked out faience shabti that mentions as its owner a certain Sethi-(er)-neheh. The face and hands are coloured in red brown. Eyes, lids and eye lines, brows, wig as well as the hoes in both hands and the hieroglyphs are painted in black. The shabti has a slender figure in mummiform with crossed arms above the chest, where the hands sculpturally protrude and all five fingers are finely accentuated. The tripartite wig cascades in the back into the nape and in the front two also sculpturally protruding, wavy lobes over the shoulder. The rim of the usekh collar and its beads raise in relief. The round, expressive face is also masterly modelled. Lips and nose gently protrude. The vertical hieroglyphic inscription mentions the name of the owner as Sethi-(er)-neheh, equates him with Osiris and calls him as “the strong one”. There is no title mentioned. A similar name dating to the same period, namely “Sethi-re-neheh” is known on a stele in the Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim (inventory number 0375). Whether it is the same person cannot be proven. In any case, this is a rare, elaborately and finely worked out shabti, whose owner was undoubtedly of high rank. Mounted.