Translated Egyptian Limestone Offering for Pa-Wab

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Antiquities | Asian | Ethnographic Art

By Artemis Gallery

Sep 10, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-09-10 10:00:00 2020-09-10 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Antiquities | Asian | Ethnographic Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/antiquities-asian-ethnographic-art-5546
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• Lot Description
  Egypt, Late Dynastic Period, 26th to 31st Dynasty, ca. 664 to 332 BCE. A rectangular funerary offering table with a central relief, hand-carved from a large slab of limestone. The body features a pair of low relief hes-vases with inverted piriform bodies and projecting discoid rims, and a central orb is perhaps indicative of an offering bowl. A narrow channel is carved at the top of the perimeter. The perimeter and lower body are presented with a lengthy hieroglyphic inscription that when translated reads, "God's father, prophet, Hem-Ka priest…prophet of…, prophet Montu?, god's father, prophet of…, Isis the great, prophet of Re-Horakhty…Min-Horus…, lady of the town of Tep-Ihu, giving bread, beer, oxen, fowl, wine, milk and every good and pure thing…Overseer of prophets, Pa-Wab." Hes-vases were used in purification, libation, and offering rituals - the hes-vase hieroglyph translates as "praise" or "to favor" - and their likeness in this example suggests this table was used for offerings of precious oils or other liquids. Size: 10.25" W x 14.75" H (26 cm x 37.5 cm)
  
  For an example of a hes-vase with a strikingly similar profile as those in the central relief, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 35.3.24.
  
  A stylistically similar example of an offering table, of a slightly larger form and from the Middle Kingdom period, hammered for $50,000 at Christie's, New York "Antiquities" auction (sale 2007, June 4, 2008, lot 3).
  
  Provenance: private J.H. collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA; ex-Explorer Ancient Art, New York, USA; ex-Royal-Athena Gallery, New York, USA and London, UK; ex-private UN diplomat P.A. collection, purchased in Egypt in the 1970s
  
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  #149648

  Condition

  Professionally repaired from roughly twelve pieces, with resurfacing along obverse break lines, and chipping and light adhesive residue to those on verso. Losses to areas of periphery, perimeter, hes-vases, and verso as shown. Nicks and fading to some raised details and inscribed hieroglyphs, with light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits throughout, and many hieroglyphs still legible.
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