New Kingdom, 19th-20th Dynasty, 1295-1077 B.C. Inscribed for Ir-nu; with carefully modelled face, large eyes and unnaturally large ears, wearing a neck-strap, a long tripartite wig with incised striations and a broad three-band collar; holding a pick in his left hand, a hoe in the right and a seed bag hanging over the left shoulder; the unusual position of the hands opposed on the chest; the text beginning in the vertical column running down the front of the figure, continuing in five horizontal bands with pale red-ochre pigment colouring to the top, middle and bottom bands; the same pigment used to colour the implements and also alternates with blue striations of the wig, the neck strap and details of the collar also in blue; the inscription from the Book of the Dead Chapter 6, reading: (Vertical column:) 'The illuminated one, the Osiris' (Horizontal rows:) 1) Ir-nu, true of voice, he says: O, this shabti 2) if one is counted, if one is reckoned to do the work 3) [to do all that is to be done in] the god’s land, to cultivate the riparian lands, transport by boat 4) [sand of] the west to the east, to act 5) at any time, to serve there (you) shall say true of voice(?). Cf. Newberry, P., Funerary Statuettes and Model Sarcophagi, Catalogue général des Antiquités égyptiennes du musée du Caire, Nos.46530-48575, Cairo 1930-1957, pp.378-379 (CG 48497), pl. XXI; see Donald, B., Funerary Figurines in Oxford Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, vol 1, New York, 2000, pp.568-569; see also Schneider, H.D., Shabtis. An Introduction to the History of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Statuettes with a Catalogue of the Collection of Shabtis in the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, 3 vols., Leiden 1977, V.2, p.73, (3.2.1.55), pl.100; V.3 p.26. Exhibited: The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) 2016, Booth 430, Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands. 1.4 kg total, 28.4 cm high including stand (11 1/8 in.).

Carieau family collection, Belgium, acquired in 1952. Ex Maspero collection, Paris, 1963. Acquired from a private European collection, in 1978. Accompanied by a copy of a technical report by Edmund S. Meltzer Ph.D. Accompanied by an academic report by Egyptologist Paul Whelan. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12080-217053.

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