LATE PERIOD, 26TH DYNASTY, 664-525 B.C.

The impressive scale and refined quality of this seated lioness-headed goddess indicates that it likely belongs to an important group of similar large-scale statues from Sais, the Delta capital of the 26th Dynasty. A significant portion depict seated male and female lion-headed deities. When there are no identifying inscriptions, it is impossible to know which deity was intended, but some inscribed examples indicate that Wadjet was intended (see an example in the Louvre, figs. 1-2, 4 in J. Vandier, "Ouadjet et l'Horus léontocéphale de Bouto," Monuments et mémoires publiés par l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. 55, 1967). Wadjet was the tutelary deity of the Nile Delta, one of the "Two Ladies," the vulture goddess Nekhbet being the other. Her name means "the green one." Some similar bronze figures of seated lion-headed deities have been found to contain mummified remains of ichneumons, and it is very possible that the hollow interior of the present example might have been intended for such a purpose (see B.V. Bothmer, "Statuettes of W3d.t as Ichneumon Coffins," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 121-123).

M.A. Mansoor (1881-1968; also known as Mansur Abd al-Sayyid Mansoor) was born to a Coptic family in Qena, north of Luxor, and early in his life worked for the Egypt State Railways. According to F. Hagen and K. Rhyholt (pp. 237-238 in The Antiquities Trade in Egypt 1880-1930: The H.O. Lange Papers), he “became a major dealer in Cairo with a shop inside Shepheard’s Hotel…the shop was established in 1906 after Mansoor had been allowed to display a couple of showcases with antiquities for a year and a half.” Mansoor did significant business in the United States: in addition to an auction of his personal collection at Parke-Bernet in 1947 (in which the present lot features), he also organized an exhibition in Dallas in 1950. Mansoor and his family later emigrated to the U.S., settling permanently in San Francisco.