Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
Lot 347
A large Egyptian bronze figure of Osiris
6 July 2023, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £152,800 inc. premium
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Siobhan Quin
Senior Specialist
Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
A large Egyptian bronze figure of Osiris
Late Period, circa 664-332 B.C.
55cm high
Late Period, circa 664-332 B.C.
55cm high
Footnotes
Provenance:
with Blanchard's Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Collected by Olive Farnworth with her mother in Cairo ca. 1911, and recorded in her house inventory in 1921; and thence by descent to the present owner.
Osiris was one of the most important of the Egyptian deities, embodying all the quintessential concerns of the ancient Egyptians through his close association with death, resurrection and fertility. He was frequently depicted as a mummy with hands holding the royal implements of the crook and flail and wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt. The cult of Osiris became increasingly important in the 1st Millennium B.C., as reflected in the profusion of bronze Osiris figures that were offered at shrines and temples of this period. Such statuettes were made in various sizes, the above being one of the larger examples: there is a similarly large Osiris figure in the Metropolitan Museum, acc. no. 61.45.