Ave,
I thought I would make
a post here for all who are interested in ancient
Egyptian antiquities, especially bronze items. This is an authentic Late Period bronze statuette of the god Harpokrates that I won at
auction several years ago. It came with a very interesting
provenance, described below. The piece exhibits a beautiful, untouched crystalline
patina, and might serve some
good to those who are interested in
buying similar pieces, and wish to make a comparison with an authentic, unrestored
Egyptian bronze. I also own a bronze statuette of
Isis of similar form from the same
collection of C.E.Best. I find the colorful and interesting
provenance to add another dimension to the items themselves. I highly recommend those who are interested in
buying Egyptian artifacts to look for pieces with a long, documented
history attached to them.
Here is a description of the artifact:
An ancient
Egyptian bronze statuette of the God Harpokrates, shown seated wearing the sidelock of
youth, sun-disc and tripartite wig, dating to
Egypt's Late Period, approximately 664-323 B.C.
Harpokrates is the Greek name for the
Egyptian God Horus, depicted in
his child form with finger to the mouth - a recognition of the
Egyptian "child" hieroglyph. He was the God of the
sunrise, and was often depicted as a falcon.
A suspension loop at the back would have enabled the figure to be worn as an
amulet.
Height: 3 1/2 inches.
Provenance:
Ex.
Collection of C.E.B.Best (died 1973). Cecil Best was an incredibly colorful character. Educated at Ardingley college in the late 1800's, Best trained as a banker but subsequently worked as a miner, soldier, merchant, editor and singer. He served as syllabus secretary at the Theosophical Society,
England, where he
met his future wife Inayat
Khan, who converted him to the Sufism form of Islam and renamed him Shahbaz. Shahbaz Best, as he was now known, traveled to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to spread
his religion and
work as a banker. It was during this time that he
met H.E.Inman, a marine engineer, who gifted him
his collection of
antiquities that he
had acquired in lieu of payment from the
Egyptian government between 1910-1912. The
antiquities were excavated from tombs in lower
Egypt and were on display at the Southampton Museum in
England after the death of Mr. Best in 1973.
For a higher
quality picture, here's a link to the piece in my
gallery:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-120518