Egyptian mummy mask from Hawara
€53,000
available
Object number
AR3470
| Object: |
Egyptian mummy mask from Hawara
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| Material: |
Gilt cartonnage with polychrome painting.
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| Period: |
Late ptolemaic era, Circa 100 BC to 30 BC. |
| Description: |
Egyptian mummy mask with tripartite wig. The curly hair is stylized as spirals and falls over the forehead. The face and ears are gilded, the eyes and eyebrows painted black and white. A hairband sits on the head, with a central eye of Horus in relief at the front and a painted bow at the back. A figure is painted on each front lappet of the wig, the seated goddess Nephthys on the left and the seated goddess Isis on the right. A standing woman is painted on the back lappet of the wig, with a threepartite wig and hairband. The breast of the mask is framed by a collar made of square decorative fields, painted with geometric patterns, two eyes of Horus and two lotuses. |
| Dimensions: |
Approximately 44cm high, 27cm wide, 25cm deep. Life size. Mounted on the modern stand the mask is approximately 66cm high with a few centimeters of cushening between the stand and the head.
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| Condition: |
Great condition. The original material has been professionally restored and stabilized. The painting and gilding are almost completely original; there are retouches on the right and left of the forehead. It is unavoidable that the surface has cracks and can chip easily. In the chest area, the cardboard was extensively cleaned of bitumen around 2014 and the painting was restored. With modern stickers "Sotheby's Hong Kong Ltd, April 2018, 3047" inside and on the stand. And another sticker inside with the inscription "924". The specially made modern stand allows for optimal storage and presentation. |
| Provenance: |
Acquired by us on the art market in 2023. Previously owned by Christoph Bacher, Vienna, ref. no. 1365. Acquired in 2020 through Sotheby's from the inventory of the renowned Galerie Chenel, Paris. Exported with French export certificate. The piece was offered by the gallery for the first time after its recent restoration at the Sotheby's New York auction on 8 December 2015, lot 31 (estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 USD, corresponding to around 18,500 to 28,000 EUR at the time). Acquired by Galerie Chenel from a Belgian private collection. Acquired into the collection on 26 April 1980 from Galerie des Saints-Pères, Paris. There is a copy of a photo of the mask in Saints-Pères gallery from 1980, as well as a letter from the gallery certifying authenticity. Based on a comparative piece in the ethnological collection of the Burgdorf Castle Museum with known find spot, we suspect that this mask also comes from Hawara, an ancient Egyptian necropolis located at the entrance to the Fayyum Basin southeast of Medinet el-Fajum. The cemetery was used particularly intensively in the Greco-Roman period. Many mummy portraits and masks come from Hawara. Among the archaeologists who dug there are Karl Richard Lepsius and Flinders Petrie. It is quite possible that the mask here comes from one of these excavations in the late 19th century. |
| Catalogues and exhibitions: |
Sotheby’s London auction on 17 December 2020, lot 35. Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction on 1 April 2018, lot 3047. Exhibited at BRAFA Art Fair, Brussels, 21 to 29 January 2017, by Galerie Chenel, booth 80c. Sotheby’s New York auction on 8 December 2015, lot 31. Sotheby’s New York auction on 12. December 2013, lot 18. |
| References: |
Cf. a near identical piece in the ethonological collection of the museum Schloss Burgdorf, acc. no. ES-7615. That mummy mask was discovered in 1894 in Hawara, Egypt, approximately 90km from Cairo. It is likely that the mask offered here comes from that region as well due to its great similarity. Cf. G. Grimm, Die Römischen Mummienmasken aus Ägypten (Wiesbaden, 1974), pl. A and 4.4. |
| Literature: |
Steve Pasek, Hawara - Eine ägyptische Siedlung in hellenistischer Zeit (Berlin, 2007). William M. Flinders Petrie, Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara (London, 1890). |
| Authenticity: |
We unconditionally guarantee the authenticity of every artefact, all items are subject to our lifetime return policy on authenticity.
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