NEW KINGDOM TO LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 1550-525 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN ELECTRUM-INLAID BRONZE BABOON
NEW KINGDOM TO LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 1550-525 B.C.
2 ¾ in. (7 cm.) high

Provenance

with The Brummer Gallery, New York and Paris, acquired in March 1940 (Inv. No. X1291).
The Ernest Brummer Collection: Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities, Sotheby's, London, 16-17 November 1964, lot 58.
with K. J. Hewett, London.
Leo Mildenberg (1913-2001), Zurich, by 1996; thence by descent.
A Peaceable Kingdom, The Leo Mildenberg Collection of Ancient Animals, Christie's, London, 26-27 October 2004, lot 115.

Literature

A. S. Walker, ed., Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, pt. III, Mainz am Rhein, 1996, pp. 70-71, no. 97.
G. Zahlhaas, Aus Noahs Arche: Tierbilder der Sammlung Mildenberg aus fünf Jahrtausenden, Mainz am Rhein, 1996, no. 97.
M. Page-Gasser and A. B. Wiese, Ägypten, Augenblicke Ewigkeit, Mainz, 1997, p. 215, no. 140.
P. E. Mottahedeh, ed., Out of Noah's Ark, Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, Jerusalem, 1997, pp. 76-77, no. 57.

Exhibited

Basel, Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig; and Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Ägypten: Augenblicke der Ewigkeit, 18 March 1997-11 January 1998.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Rowena Field Junior Specialist & Cataloguer

rfield@christies.com +44 20 7389 2113

Lot Essay

This finely-detailed baboon is depicted standing with its left leg forward and its hands raised, with the palms facing forwards in an adoration pose. Visible are the well-articulated hairs to depict the mantle on the face and upper body, over which lies an inlaid, silver rectangular chest pectoral. Sacred to the god Thoth, the baboon was believe to hold powers to bid the sun to rise, which perhaps accounts for its raised hands here.

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