LATE PERIOD, 26TH-30TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 664-343 B.C.

The seated feline is depicted in an alert stance, forepaws together, the long tail curled around its right side of the body, the muzzle incised with radiating whiskers, and the erect ears are detailed with horizontal striations. It wears a protective lion-headed aegis on its chest, suspended on a cowry shell necklace and decorated with three tassels on the nape of the neck, with a naturalistic Khepri-scarab in raised relief on the crown of head. For another large bronze cat wearing a similar cowrie-shell necklace with an aegis pendant see the Louvre Museum, inv. no. N 4538.