ANCIENT EGYPTIAN USHABTI FIGURE
EGYPT, THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, C. EARLY 1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.
Estimate: £600 - £900
Auction: 13 March 2025 from 13:00 GMT
Description
faience, depicted in typical fashion, holding the hoe, pick, and seed-sack over the shoulder, wearing the tripartite wig, with a central vertical line of hieroglyphic inscription, raised on a stone mount
Dimensions
11.1cm tall
Provenance
Private collection, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
Footnote
Shabtis, known also as “answerer figures”, were placed in a tomb so the owner's spirit would not have to perform manual labour in the afterlife. They were often inscribed with chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead, the shabti text, a spell that compels the shabti to substitute itself if the owner is asked to till the fields, irrigate the land, or transport sand from east to west.