Magnificent Egyptian feather crown
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Object number
AR3437
| Object: |
Magnificent Egyptian feather crown
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| Material: |
Bronze with beautiful reddish-brown to green patina.
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| Period: |
26th dynasty, Circa 664 BC to 525 BC. Late Period of Ancient Egypt. |
| Description: |
Large feather crown made of bronze with a flat back and relief on the front. The crown is full of complex symbolism. Two Maat ostrich feathers protrude in the middle. The sun disk is depicted in the center, flanked by two coiled uraeus snakes. The lower end is formed by a horizontal ram's horn. The crown was once inserted into a figure with a bronze pin at the bottom. This is the rare so-called Henu crown. It was introduced in the New Kingdom as an insignia of various pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Ramesses II and Seti I. Variants of this crown were also used in depictions of gods, for example for Sobek, as well as for syncretic Osiris figures. Due to the size and good quality of the bronze crown, it must have belonged to an important figurative representation. Even without the figure, the Henu crown is a magnificent specimen and can fill a didactic gap in an Egyptological private or museum collection. |
| Dimensions: |
85mm high, excluding the part of the bronze tang that is sunk into the wood. 104mm wide. With modern base 113mm high.
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| Condition: |
The feather crown itself is perfectly preserved. It comes without the figure in which it was once set. The surface has been cleaned and has a beautiful, dark, red-brown patina, with traces of a green patina in the corners. Small chips do not spoil the magnificent impression. The original bronze pin is set in a modern base made of black lacquered wood. On the underside there is an indecipherable inscription in pencil from a previous owner.
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| Provenance: |
Acquired by us in 2023 from T. Schloessner, Germany. Previously in the German Steinbock family collection, built between 1920 and 1982 by the art historian R. Steinbock, mostly acquired on the German art market.
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| References: |
For the first depictions of the Henu crown from the New Kingdom, see the coronation scene of Hatshepsut, Red Chapel, south wall, block no. 141. A bronze figure with a Henu crown from the period from which this example also comes can be found in M. Page Gasser, Götter bewohnten Ägypten, plate V, no. 4. It is one of the few comparable pieces, but with a damaged crown. Page Gasser describes the figure as remarkable and rare. For a bronze figure with a Henu crown from the Ptolemaic-Roman period in a less detailed version, see Museo Egizio Torino, acc. no. Suppl. 18068. |
| Authenticity: |
We unconditionally guarantee the authenticity of every artefact, all items are subject to our lifetime return policy on authenticity.
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