Hi Folks,
This is probably not what people want to hear, but here goes...
I am not a fan of
shabti. The ones that interest me are either in museums or far beyond my
budget. I would not consider purchasing one of the lower end ones, and probably have far more interest in
ancient coins than in those
shabti. That being said, I would like to add the following:
1. I never saw an authentic
shabti with a hole in its
head - presumably for suspension - by a "flower child" of the 1960's.
2. The ancient Egyptians made
faience, frit and various compositions for over 3000 years. They were masters at it and knew how to do it far better than we can today. You rarely see cracks in ancient
shabti caused by escaping moisture from the ware and you do here.
3. Making
shabti was a business, and the makers were no different from manufacturers of today. They probably
had their equivalent of lobbyists who worked the temples and courts. At first, one
shabti was
good enough... but then a rumor spread - one
shabti could only do the
work of the deceased for a day, then it
had to rest. Eventually, the deceased needed a different
shabti for each day of the year - 365
shabti per customer instead of one! With so many
shabti running around there was bound to be confusion, so overseer (supervisory)
shabti were invented. Wow, big bucks! Few could afford beautifuly made
shabti any more - as quantity increased,
quality decreased. Who cared? The customers seemed to be happy and the makers were making a
good profit, everyone was happy.
4. Never forget, the ancients were more like us than we would like to admit, and a lot of them were probably smarter than us, too.
5. Modern
Egypt is the world center for making
fakes of
Egyptian antiquities and has been for over 100 years... Suppose you are a modern
Egyptian who dabbles in
antiquities and you acquire a
shabti mold - an ancient one. You experiment with local clays and/or mud and use the mold to make some
shabti. They don't look bad but they need a glaze and you are smart enough to realize that modern glazes do not look like the ancient ones. So you gather up a pile of worthless (?) broken glazed
antiquities and smash them, pulverize them; add water and "
pan"the mixture to separate the glaze from the composition. You coat the
shabti with the ancient glaze mixture and fire them. Were you clever enough to separate the glazed
antiquities you smashed by age and color? Perhaps, perhaps not... but probably
good enough to fool a dumb tourist, or escape detection by a so called expert. Was the fire in your kiln oxidation or reduction? How well did you control it? If your items escape detection and sell, who cares?
6. Remember,
selling fakes to tourists is a high;
selling them to professed experts is a "super high."
7. Don't forget, dealing in
antiquities in
Egypt is a crime, so is removing them from the country. If you bought something in
Egypt thinking it was ancient, you were probably breaking the law. Who are you going to complain to? And the fakers are laughing - all the way to the bank.
Sorry.
Russ