Egyptian headrest for a funeral or daily use
€3,650
available
Object number
AR3288
| Object: |
Egyptian headrest for a funeral
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| Material: |
Wood.
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| Period: |
Around the Amarna Period, circa 1550 BC to 1186 BC. 18th to 19th dynasty of ancient Egypt, New Kingdom. |
| Description: |
Ancient Egyptian headrest consisting of three joined wooden parts. A broad almost rectangular plate with rounded corners serves as a base. The head piece is also broad and almost rectangular with the narrow sides curved upwards to form a kind of bowl for the neck. It rests on an octagonal pillar with a large cross-section tapering towards the middle.
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| Background: |
The headrest was made and used for an Egyptian funerary ritual. Those rituals were full of meaning and strict in their execution. Certainly also this headrest had a very specific function. However, comparatively little is known about this type of object. Raising the head had probably a symbolic meaning for the resurrection of the deceased in the afterlife. A completely different interpretation of the object can be found in the older publication by the Egyptologist Prof. Eberhard Otto mentioned below. He sees the headrest as an everyday object that carried the pillow on which the head was then laid. His very similar comparative piece is decorated with demons warding off evil, its inscription simply wishes a good night sleep. |
| Dimensions: |
30.0cm width, 9.0cm depth, 17.1cm heigth. Due to small missing parts the piece was once a few millimeters higher.
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| Condition: |
Great condition. The wood is well preserved and the object is quite impressive in its entiry. Only small parts missing since ancient times at the top part of the rest, a few centimers large. It can been seen well on the photos. Stable crack at the foot. The middle part was re-attached from three parts in ancient times, a part of the rim was re-attached probably in modern times.
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| Provenance: |
Acquired by us in 2022 on the British art market. Previously in the private collection of British archaeologist P. Whelan. He is known to collectors and the market a author of the standard work "Mere Scraps of Rough Wood" on simple wooden funenary statuettes of the 17th and 18th dynasty. Whelan acquired the object at the Bonhams London auction 20 October 2005, lot 8. It is from the estate of the British private collection Hugh Stanley Russell (1924-2000), built in the 1950ies to 1970ies. The close parallel researched by Prof. Otto is said to be found in el-Hagg Qandil in Egypt, near the famous late 18th dynasty capital Amarna. It is quite possible that also the object offered here is from that region. |
| References: |
Cf. E. Otto, Werke der Kunst in Heidelberg (1964), no. 30.
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| Authenticity: |
We unconditionally guarantee the authenticity of every artefact, all items are subject to our lifetime return policy on authenticity.
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