Egyptian Sarcophagus Cover, Late Dynastic Period-early Ptolemaic Period, c.350-300 BC. Limestone, H. 57.5 cm (22.6 in.). Courtesy CHARLES EDE at TEFAF Maastrich 2023

Provenance: Private collection, Bochum, Germany; acquired prior to WWII, thence by descent.

The deceased is shown idealised, wearing a smooth wig tucked behind large ears, the lappets falling forwards over the shoulders, framing a delicately carved, broad, collar necklace. The face has elongated cosmetic lines to the lids and brows, the lips are plump and the cheeks rounded. Carved on the inside of the lid is the outline of a front-facing human head, echoing that of the outer surface; some of the painted red guidelines are still visible. The white limestone from which it is carved is particularly fossiliferous. Without restoration.

This fragment belongs to a large anthropoid sarcophagus. The head emerged from a body whose torso and limbs were concealed by mummy wrappings; the surface would have been mainly smooth but perhaps with a few vertical lines of hieroglyphics down the front. It is part of a group of sarcophagi known as the ‘Swollen’ type. They were made from the 26th Dynasty onwards, but the rather austere lines in the current example push it to the end of the Dynastic and beginning of the Ptolemaic period.