Egyptian Cedar & Painted Gesso Canopic Box w/ Ba Bird

About Auction

Live

Exceptional Day 1: Antiquities & Asian Art

By Artemis Gallery

Sep 26, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-09-26 10:00:00 2019-09-26 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Day 1: Antiquities & Asian Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-day-1-antiquities-asian-art-4437
Day 1 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional, museum-worthy examples of Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Viking, Russian, Near Eastern, as well as Asian Art from China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and India. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

View Full Catalog (328)

• Lot Description
  Egypt, Third Intermediate to Late Dynastic Period, 25th to 26th Dynasty, ca. 744 to 525 BCE. A beautiful canopic box of a rare form, hand-carved from cedar wood, with four body panels connected via several original wooden dowels and resting atop a rectangular base, and with a lid with recessed corners that fits around the four corner columns. The body, base, and lid are covered in thin layers of white gesso and painted with polychrome hues of green, blue, white, and red. The box features five figures standing in mummiform that surround columns of black-painted hieroglyphic inscriptions, and bars of enclosed stripes adorn the peripheral areas. Surmounting the lid is a vibrant polychrome Ba bird with a lengthy tail, a squat body, and a gilt wood sun disk; this bird is meant to represent Ra-Horakhty. While the original contents are unknown, this box was perhaps used as an animal coffin to contain the mummified remains of a petite creature. Size: 9.625" L x 8.5" W x 12" H (24.4 cm x 21.6 cm x 30.5 cm).
  
  Interestingly, cedar wood was not native to Egypt. Egypt did not have verdant forests filled with tall trees, and unfortunately most of its native lumber was of relatively poor quality. Thus, they relied on importing to acquire hardwoods - ebony imported from Africa, cedar and pine from Lebanon. One fabulous obelisk inscription by Thutmose III attests to the luxury of treasured hardwoods. It reads as follows, "They brought to me the choicest products...consisting of cedar, juniper and of meru wood...all the good sweet woods of God's Land." The rarity of cedar meant that masks like this example were reserved for those who could afford them.
  
  For a stylistically similar example of a canopic box, with vibrant decorations and a lid surmounted by a zoomorphic representation of Anubis, please see: Hornung, Erik and Betsy Morrell Bryan, eds. "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt." National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002, p. 163, fig. 75.
  
  Provenance: private J.H. collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #149655

  Condition

  Chips and losses to base, walls, lid, Ba bird, some dowels, and gesso layers as shown. Fading to original pigment, with minor darkening to gilding on Ba bird, staining to original pigmentation, and loosening to walls and joint areas. Great earthen deposits and wonderful traces of original pigment throughout.
• Shipping Info

  • All shipping is handled in-house for your convenience. Your invoice from Artemis Gallery will include shipping calculation instructions. If in doubt, please inquire BEFORE bidding for estimated shipping costs for individual items.

• Buyer's Premium
  • 26.50 %