Lot Essay
Cf. G. T. Martin, The Royal Tomb at El-Amarna, The Rock Tombs of El-Amarna, Part VII, I, The Objects, London, 1974, no. 190; C. Aldred, Akhenaten, London, 1988
In The Scepter of Egypt, Part II, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1959, p. 289, fig. 178, William C. Hayes writes: "Like many royal shawabtys it is inscribed only with the king's names and titles written in a vertical column down the front, holds in its hands a pair of ankh-signs, and, in place of the curved Osirian beard, wears on its chin the square-cut pharaonic goatee. The headdress of this particular example is of the long, archaic type worn by divinities, but it too has been "modernised" by the addition of the royal uraeus. The most striking characteristic of these small and more or less mass-produced figures is the extraordinary individuality of their tiny faces, which in some cases deserve to be counted among the more accurate and lifelike portraits of the pharaoh now in existence."
In The Scepter of Egypt, Part II, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1959, p. 289, fig. 178, William C. Hayes writes: "Like many royal shawabtys it is inscribed only with the king's names and titles written in a vertical column down the front, holds in its hands a pair of ankh-signs, and, in place of the curved Osirian beard, wears on its chin the square-cut pharaonic goatee. The headdress of this particular example is of the long, archaic type worn by divinities, but it too has been "modernised" by the addition of the royal uraeus. The most striking characteristic of these small and more or less mass-produced figures is the extraordinary individuality of their tiny faces, which in some cases deserve to be counted among the more accurate and lifelike portraits of the pharaoh now in existence."