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Sale 38
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Lot 1244
A Rare "Corn Mummy" & Falcon Sarcophagus. Egypt, Late Dynastic, 26th-30th Dynasties, c. 664-342 BC. Carved wood anthropoid mummy case, with carefully sculpted falcon's head, gessoed and painted in a more somber coloring. The face gilt, with the bird's facial markings in black, a lappet wig in blue-black with gilt edging, and a beaded broad collar in red. The rest of the figure in black. Within, the "corn" mummy of Osiris with simple wrappings, and covered with bitumen. Underneath the mummy's "head" is a portion of wax sheeting, which comprised the portrait maskette of Osiris. The missing front part of the maskette may have had the god's likeness rendered in gold, and was plundered sometime in the past. This aside, the mummy very well preserved. The wood coffin equally fine, with only a small chip to the tip of the falcon's beak, and another chip to the base of the back section (which may have been touched up). The back pillar to the coffin, and a section of the headdress above it show staining and some paint loss to indicate the coffin was once in contact with a moist surface, or was exposed to leaking fluids. This damage looks ancient. It also reveals that part of the coffin was once painted blue and white.That its color scheme was altered to the specifications of the ancient purchaser is not uncommon. This does not lessen the rarity or qualty of this artifact, but does add a footnote of interest. Height of coffin: 18-1/2". A museum quality display piece that should arouse much interest.
Estimated Value $12,000 - 18,000.
Provenance: Northeast U.S. Private Collection, this among a number of Egyptian antiquities purchased in Cairo in the early 1950's, during the time of the Farouk palace sales, and which were cleared for release by the Cairo museum at that time. Without a doubt, the best comparison to this piece is the nearly identical coffin and corn mummy in the sale of the Harer collection at Christies New York last December 9; lot 25, with the coffin more pristine, and the Osiris maskette intact, there the lot realized $48,000.
Osiris, as the supreme god of resurrection, was inextricably connected by the ancient Egyptians with the life-giving forces of nature and vegetation, particularly as it pertained to the Nile. Above all, he was associated with germinating grain. The emergence of a growing plant from an apparently lifeless seed, hidden within the earth, was regarded by the Egyptians as a metaphor for the rebirth of a human being from the lifeless corpse. This idea was translated into concrete form by the fashioning of images of Osiris out of earth and grain. These "corn-mummies" (more correctly, "grain-mummies") were composed of sand or mud, and mixed with grains of barley. Sometimes these body surrogates were wrapped in linen bandages and might receive a finely detailed mask of wax, often with gold sheet covering, to represent the face of Osiris.
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| Realized $13,800 |
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