AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE PTAH

LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXVI, 664-525 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE PTAH
LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXVI, 664-525 B.C.
Depicted standing on a four-tiered dias attached to a rectangular plinth atop an inscribed rectangular base, enveloped in a shroud-like garment, the 'collar' rising up over the nape of his neck, his head adorned with a tightly-fitted cap, his false beard striated, wearing a broad collar and a bracelet on each wrist, his hands emerging from beneath the shroud and clasping a was-scepter, the tiered dias inscribed in hieroglyphs for "Ptah who bestows life...," the top of the base and all four sides inscribed for the deities "Ptah-Sokar-Osiris" and "Ptah-who-is-South-of-his-wall," containing prayers so that the name of the deceased, Astcheritcher, who served as a wab (or purification) priest, "might live forever" that "his spirit might go forth" and that he "might be granted a goodly burial provisioned with bread and beer, oxen and fowl, incense and cool water offerings..."
7½ in. (19 cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 14 December 1987, lot 106.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1988.

Lot Essay

Ptah represented the creator god of Memphis and was the patron of creative craftsmen. In time, his character merged with those of Sokar and of Osiris, gods of the necropolis, and in so doing formed a syncretistic deity, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. The combination of powers assured the resurrection of the deceased in the hereafter.

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