Details
AN EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE OFFERING TABLE
MIDDLE KINGDOM, LATE 11TH-EARLY 12TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1991 B.C.
Rectangular in form, the square upper section with a raised border and a hetep-form decorative panel descending from the center of the upper edge, the shape representing sacrificial bread, the panel carved in sunk relief with an image of the deceased seated before a table with loaves, his right arm held forth, his left arm bent acutely and holding a lily at his chest, wearing a tightly-fitted kilt and a broad collar, offerings before him, including an ox shank, a side of beef, six loaves, a round cake and two animal heads, below the table a spouted vessel, an inscription above and to the left, reading: "Thousand of bread, beer, meat and poultry for the reverend Ias-Mes;" the inner recessed area with a deep square on either side, each joined to the runoff channel by a diagonal trough, the side of one inscribed: "Beer;" the other: "Water;" the runoff channel leading to a rectangular basin at the lower end; a hieroglyphic inscription around the square border, reading: "An offering which the king gives and Osiris (gives), Lord of Busiris, the First of the Westerners, the Great God, Lord of Abydos, in all its places. Offerings that emerge as they are called, consisting of bread, beer, meat, poultry and cakes for the Ka of the venerable Ias-Mes, for whom the justification is pronounced (at the Last Judgement). Venerable by the Great God, Lord of Heaven, Ias-Mes. Venerable Ias-Mes with Osiris"
24½ in. (62.2 cm.) long
Provenance
with Kamel Abdallah Hammouda, Cairo, 1964.
P.W.H. Schaepman, acquired in Cairo and brought to the Netherlands, 1964.
H. Hamers, Amsterdam, acquired from the above, 1995.
Collection of Dr. H. Hamers; Zeeuws Veilinghuis, Middelburg, 8-10 June 2010, lot 1505.
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