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Published and exhibited: Galerie ?gyptischer Kunst, (Alexander Sandmeier), G?ttingen, October 1975, no. 36.
Egypt, circa 664-525 BC. Gessoed and finely painted, the face is framed by a tripartite wig beneath outstretched vulture wings. The eyelines and brows are inlaid in bronze, while the eyes are inlaid with alabaster and glass, and the fleshy lips are drawn into an enigmatic smile. She wears a broad floral diadem and an elaborate wesekh-collar with falcon-headed terminals. Below, the sky goddess Nut is depicted with outstretched, winged arms, her name inscribed in hieroglyphs within the sun disk of her headdress. Wearing a tight-fitting red tunic, she crouches upon a temple fa?ade decorated with a chequerboard pattern and flanked on either side by a ram with undulating horns, each wearing a double-plumed headdress surmounted by a sun disk. The composition is framed along the edges of the coffin by bands of red, black, and yellow.
Inscriptions: Thirteen columns of hieroglyphic text and a horizontal band below, comprising funerary offering formulas invoking Osiris and Khonsu-Horus on behalf of the deceased. The inscription reads in translation: “A royal offering to Osiris, Foremost of the West, Great God, Lord of Abydos, that he might give all offerings, every type of provisions, wine [uncertain], to the Mistress [uncertain], for the ka of the Osiris, Lady of the House [uncertain]; he might give an offering to the Lady of the House [uncertain], True of Voice, daughter of Kar-ef, Hail Amun; a royal offering to Khonsu-Horus for the ka of the Lady of the House Ir-Djehouty [uncertain], wine, milk, everything good and pure for the kas of [uncertain].”
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. As commonly found with Egyptian wood coffin covers of this considerable age, the piece has undergone restoration and stabilization over time, including reassembly, consolidation, fills, and associated retouching. Expected wear, age cracks, and scattered minor losses. The polychrome decoration is remarkably well preserved, retaining strong and vivid colors. The reverse is fitted with a rectangular wooden support board.
Provenance:
- A private collection in Germany, acquired in the late 1960s-early 1970s.
- With Galerie ?gyptischer Kunst, G?ttingen, 1975.
- A private collection, Germany, acquired from the above in 1975.
- With Roswitha Eberwein, G?ttingen, Germany.
- The collection of Renate Wald, Germany, acquired from the above in 1988, and thence by descent.
- Christie’s London, 26 April 2012, lot 213, sold for GBP 73,250 or approx. EUR 127,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing, as property from the estate of Renate Wald
- The private collection of Erika Krautkr?mer, Germany, acquired from the above, and thence by descent within the family.
Alexander Sandmeier was a German antiquities dealer active in G?ttingen during the 1970s, specializing in ancient Egyptian art through Galerie ?gyptischer Kunst G?ttingen.
Galerie Eberwein has specialized in art from the ancient Mediterranean world for over forty years. Founded by Roswitha Eberwein and today directed by her daughter Antonia Eberwein from the gallery’s premises in the Saint-Germain district of Paris, it is particularly known for Egyptian art and works from neighboring cultures, dating from the Predynastic period to the Coptic era.
Renate Wald (d. 2011), Hamburg, was a noted German collector and philanthropist. Together with her husband, the entrepreneur and patron Hubertus Wald (1913-2005), she assembled one of Hamburg’s most important private art collections, encompassing paintings, prints, and sculpture. The couple were major benefactors of the arts and founded the Hubertus Wald Foundation in 1993, supporting, among other institutions, the Hamburger Kunsthalle and medical research in Hamburg. Following her husband’s death, Renate Wald continued their philanthropic work and played a decisive role in the establishment of the Hubertus Wald Tumor Center at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
Erika Krautkr?mer (1932-2022), together with her husband, Dr. Herbert Krautkr?mer (d. 2003), was instrumental in the foundation of WHU: Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany. Shortly after World War II, Dr. Herbert Krautkr?mer and his brother Josef founded a company for non-destructive material testing, creating Germany’s first pulse-echo ultrasonic device—a global success that lives on in Waygate Technologies (Baker Hughes). As early as the early 1980s, Dr. Herbert Krautkr?mer supported the founding of WHU – both morally and financially. Erika Krautkr?mer shared her husband's convictions and continued their shared commitment with personal closeness and keen interest after his death. She assumed responsibility for the Campus Krautkr?mer Foundation and, with great personal commitment, realized the student residence hall that opened in 2005.
Weight: 14 kg (incl. mounting)
Dimensions: Height 74.3 cm (excl. mounting), 75.5 cm (incl. mounting)
The Theban female anthropoid coffin underwent a distinctive development during the 25th and 26th Dynasties. The deceased was presented as a transfigured, divine being, with the vulture headdress becoming a characteristic feature of elite female coffins. Formerly associated principally with goddesses and queens, the headdress served both as a marker of female identity and as a powerful image of divine protection. Contemporary Theban examples closely parallel this development, including the coffin of Ankhshepenwepet, Dynasty XXV (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 25.3.202a, b) and that of Isetirdis, Dynasty XXVI (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 30.3.44a, b). Particularly significant is the unusually close correspondence with the coffin of Ta-di-Isis, Dynasty XXVI, likewise from Thebes, which displays a closely related conception of the female anthropoid coffin and further situates the present fragment within a well-defined Theban tradition of the 26th Dynasty (R?tisches Museum, Chur, inv. no. K 1205).
The iconographic program further emphasizes protection and regeneration. Nut spreads her wings across the chest, enveloping the deceased as the celestial goddess through whom the sun was reborn each morning. She is flanked by Banebdjedet, the ram god of Mendes, who embodied the four divine ba souls of Ra, Shu, Geb, and Osiris and thus the primordial forces of creation. The combination of the vulture headdress, winged Nut, and flanking ram deities forms a carefully conceived funerary program centered on the deceased's divine transformation, protection, and eternal renewal.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related upper part of a painted wood inner coffin lid, of the noblewoman Ta-aa (Tawaya), 26th Dynasty, 69 cm high, in the World Museum Liverpool, inv. no. M13992. Compare a closely related painted wood anthropoid coffin for the lady Kaahapy, dated to the 25th-26th Dynasty, in the Louvre, Paris, inv. nos. N 2566 and N 2625, similarly decorated with a tripartite wig, vulture headdress, wesekh collar, and a kneeling winged figure of Nut flanked by two ram deities. The owner is likewise identified as a “Mistress of the House.”
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 11 June 2003, lot 358
Price: USD 171,000 or approx. EUR 270,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian gessoed and painted wood anthropoid sarcophagus, Late Period, Dynasty XXV-XXVI, 712-525 BC, 180 cm high.
Expert remark: Compare the closely related dating, painted wood medium, broad collar, and extensive funerary decoration incorporating a winged sky goddess and numerous divine figures. Note the larger size (180 cm), and that the comparison is a complete sarcophagus.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 15 December 2016, lot 15
Price: USD 348,500 or approx. EUR 422,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian polychrome wood sarcophagus lid of the Lady Tjenety, 25th Dynasty, 750-656 BC, 181 cm high.
Expert remark: Compare the closely related female subject, dating, polychrome wood medium, broad collar, anthropoid form, and richly painted funerary decoration. Note the larger size (181 cm) and that the comparison preserves the complete sarcophagus lid.
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