LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 7TH-4TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A PAIR OF EGYPTIAN PAINTED WOOD SARCOPHAGUS CORNER POSTS
LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 7TH-4TH CENTURY B.C.
Each painted white, decorated on two sides with a light blue column framed in darker blue, hieroglyphic inscription of funerary formulae in black paint
14 ¼ in. (36.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Maspero collection, France, acquired 1970s.
with Galerie Cybele, Paris, 1999.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Cf. S. d'Auria et al, Mummies and Magic, the Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1988, p. 173 no. 125a for an outer coffin with vaulted lid and four corner posts inscribed with four standard offering formulae, addressed to Osiris, Ptah-Sokar, Re-Horakhty and Atum. The rectangular coffin, although the oldest type of coffin, became popular in the Late Period. Made of wood, there was a tall post at each corner and it would fit usually two anthropoid coffins inside. Later they became smaller with only room for the mummy itself and this narrow version of the corner-post coffin remained in use well into the Roman Period.

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