Egyptian Folk Art

This Late Period to Ptolemaic Period Egyptian carved wood ear, once part of a mummy mask, stands as a poignant testament to ancient Egyptian customs and beliefs. Dating back over 250...

A mummiform ushabti in blue faience. Four registers of hieroglyphic characters are painted around the lower half of the ushabti, with a vertical column of hieroglyphs in the centre o...

Bronze statue of the goddess Neith, striding, her left foot extended forward. Her left hand is extended forward and formally held a papyrus sceptre, a fragmentary ankh is visible in her right hand. She wears a close-fitting sheath dress, incised with a broad usekh collar, and carefully engraved bracelets and armlets. On her head is the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, decorated with vertical striations and restored spiral and spire. Her face is finely molded, with a broad upturned nose and electrum-overlaid eyes and eyebrows. Neith was one of the earliest recorded gods in the Egyptian pantheon, worshipped from early in the Predynastic era through to the arrival of Roman rule. A war goddess and goddess of weaving, she was the patron goddess of the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and the city of Zau (Sais, in the 5th Nome of Lower Egypt) in the Delta. A powerful and popular goddess, she was, according to the Iunyt (Esna) cosmology, the creator of the world and the mother of the sun, Ra. This made her the mother of all of the gods, who often came to her to settle their disputes. Her symbols are the bow and arrows and a sword and shield as a war goddess, a weaving shuttle as a funerary goddess, and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt as the goddess of creation and mother goddess. She is usually depicted as a woman wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, however, she is occasionally depicted as a cow in connection with her role as the mother of Ra. The use of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver sometimes called ‘green-gold’, for the eyes speaks to the high status of the object. Electrum had been used by the Egyptians since at least the 3rd millennium B.C., but, give its rarity, was reserved for the most expensive and important objects. Most electrum used in Egypt was imported from Nubia, though some was found there. Published: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, February 25th, 1971, no. 70, illus. Sotheby’s, New York, June 5th, 1999, no. 31, illus. David Aaron Ltd...

The cup hand-carved from white alabaster with caramel and white veining throughout the composition. The cup stands upon a tapering base, and widens to form the ribbed, cylindrical cup. Alabaster was a material prized by ancient sculptors...

Standing female wearing a tight fitting white dress and black tripartite wig, serene facial features with large painted eyes. Separately made arms attached with dowel to the shoulder...

An Egyptian steatite scarab with incised features and hieroglyphs to the reverse. The front anatomy features a detailed head and clypeus with incised linear decoration to mark the prothorax and elytra. The reverse side is hard to distinguish. Mounted in a high karat later gold swivel pendant...

An Egyptian steatite scarab encased in a possibly later, high-karat gold swivel ring. The scarab is a symbol of rebirth and protection and is decorated with six sacred serpents, repr...

A rare and unusual large sized Egyptian mummified Shabti figure dating from the Ptolemaic Dynasty 305-30BC or possibly earlier. The stone figure is carved in a lying position with wo...