Two Polychrome Fragments of a Mummy Cartonnage

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 B.C.

Material: Linen

Dimensions: Frame: 32.5 cm x 26.5 cm

Price: 2 400 Euro

Ref: 1604

Provenance: Published in Catalogue 13 of Galerie Puhze, Freiburg, 1999, p. 31, no. 252. Acquired on 9 March 2007 by the collection of Erika Krautkrämer (1932-2022). Remained in family ownership until recently. With copies of the certificate of authenticity and the catalogue entry from Galerie Puhze.

Condition: Unrestored

Description: Finely executed, polychrome-painted fragments of a linen mummy cartonnage. The upper fragment shows the multi-row broad collar (“wesekh”) with chequerboard pattern and lotus blossoms. Above it, parts of the falcons that originally formed the upper termination are still visible. The fragment below depicts a finely painted embalming scene. The jackal-headed god of the dead, Anubis, bends over the mummy of the deceased during the ritual. The mummy lies on a table shaped like a lion, with a sculpted predator’s head at the front and a raised tail at the back. The legs are formed as massive paws. Beneath the table stand the canopic jars for the storage of the internal organs. The fragments are mounted on a linen backing and framed in a Plexiglas display frame from the 1990s, designed for display.