LATE NEW KINGDOM-LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 1150-350 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN GOLD OXYRHYNCHUS FISH AMULET
LATE NEW KINGDOM-LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 1150-350 B.C.
The slender fish wearing a triple-beaded collar and a sun-disc between Hathor's horns, the dorsal and caudal fins with details incised, pectoral fins of applied wire, eyes recessed for inlays, now missing
1½ in. (3.9 cm.) long

Provenance

The Groppi Collection, Switzerland; acquired in the 1920s-1940s.

Exhibited

Antikensmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig und Museum August Kestner Hannover, Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo!, 2008, no. 69.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
Exhibition catalogue, Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo!, Antikensmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig und Museum August Kestner Hannover, 2008, p. 124, no. 69.

In the myth of Osiris, after he has been killed and cut into pieces by his brother Seth, his phallus falls in the Nile and is devoured by a fish. Implored by Isis, it releases the phallus so that she can conceive her son Horus. The fish, a symbol of fertility, was named oxyrhynchus because of the site where it was worshipped in Middle Egypt.

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