Ca. 663-332 BC. Late Period. A mummy mask made of restrung glazed faience beads. The face is highly stylised with a red nose, blue skin, and a pale blue border, made of tightly strung green, yellow, red, blue, and black beads. Below the chin, the beads are arranged in stripes of colour to portray a stylised false beard. This would have been made to be placed on the face of a mummy, and had a similar function to the earlier cartonnage and wooden masks - applying a face to the mummy gave the body both identity and senses. Regaining the senses was an important mission of the recently deceased, and a key focus in the preparation and treatment of the body; many rituals and chapters in the Book of the Dead were devoted to this. Coffins and bodies from many periods of Egyptian history depicted eyes in some form to allow the body within to 'see', and here they are enlarged and exaggerated for this purpose. While in typical examples of these beaded masks the skin is coloured green just like the usual hue of Osiris' skin, here it is strikingly coloured blue; this still creates a connection with Osiris, as the god was sometimes shown with blue skin instead of green, perhaps to emphasise his connection to the heavenly journey through the sky to the afterlife. Size: L:120mm / W:120mm ; 35g. Provenance: From the important collection of a London doctor A.R; passed by descent to his son; formerly acquired before 2000 on the UK art market.