Faience Statuette of Taweret

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Late period, 26th dynasty, 664-525 B.C.

Material: Faience

Dimensions: 6.8 cm high

Price: 8 000 Euro

Ref: 1622

Provenance: Private collection of Comtesse de Tudert (1977). Sold on 27 December 1977 to Galerie Sycomore in Paris. With a copy of the invoice. Depicted on a New Year's greeting card from Galerie Sycomore dating to the late 1970s. With a copy of the card. Subsequently in a French private collection in Paris. In the private collection of Jean-Louis Domercq, Geneva, Switzerland since 1993. Exhibited at TEFAF Maastricht in 2022. Accompanied by a confirmation of provenance from Jean-Louis Domercq.

Condition: Broken at the ankle and reassembled without any missing part. The rear left corner of the plinth is chipped, otherwise, very well preserved.

Description: An exquisitely crafted green faience statuette of the Egyptian goddess Taweret, also known by the Greek name Thoëris. Taweret, the protective goddess of pregnant women, is depicted with the body of a pregnant hippopotamus, featuring human breasts alongside the head and maw of a hippopotamus. She has human arms but the paws of a lion. Her arms are held in front of her belly, and she stands in a striding pose on her original plinth, with her left leg advanced. Taweret wears a striped tripartite wig, the front lappets of which extend down to her pendulous breasts. At the rear is a hatched, feather-like dorsal pillar representing the stylized tail of a crocodile. The high quality of this statuette suggests it was produced for a temple – possibly an Egyptian “birth house”, where Taweret was identified with Isis. Mounted on a metal base.