Important Limestone Relief with an Offering Bearers from Saqqara

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Old Kingdom, 5th-6th dynasty, 2504-2216 B.C.

Material: Limestone

Dimensions: 19 cm x 38.4 cm

Price: 40 000 Euro

Ref: 1493

Provenance: Collection Robert Dubois, Brussels, Belgium, acquired in the 1970s. In 1988 by descent to Alain Dubois, Brussels. Thence in a family estate. With a confirmation by the heirs.

Condition: Unrestored, with wonderfully preserved colors. Breaks as seen on the picture.

Description: Important limestone relief with wonderfully preserved colors, which depicts a procession of offering bearers to the right. The men wear short white kilts, which cover their knees with vertical pleats in the front, as well as black wigs with small curls set in rows. Otherwise, they are without clothes, the skin color is painted in reddish brown. Preserved on the very left is the raised hand of an offering bearer, who carries a basket. In the other hand he holds a shepherd’s crook, which he uses to push a little calf. In front of him another servant walking with a basket, which he stems with the left hand and the left shoulder. He holds a large piece of ham in his right hand. The third offering bearer has the right arm lowered and grabs with his hand an agitated duck at its wings. The foremost servant balances with the left hand also a basket on his shoulder. In the right hand in front of the chest is the bottom of a bouquet recognizable, possibly of papyrus stems. Compare the depiction with the reliefs from the mastaba of the vizir Kagemni (ca. 2350 B.C.) from Saqqara and from the tomb of the high priest and boat driver Ny-ankh-Nesut, also from Saqqara, here especially the relief in the Allan Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio, USA, with the object number 1943.302. Mounted on an old heavy metal base.