Lot 29
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AMULET OF DUAMUTEF
EGYPT, THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, C. 1069-715 B.C.
Auction: 26 November 2026 from 14:00 GMT
Description
wax covered terracotta, depicted as a mummified figure with a human body and jackals head, holding a jar
Dimensions
8.4cm long
Provenance
Gustave Mustaki, Alexandria, Egypt; exported from Egypt to the United Kingdom circa 1950
Elsa McLellan, United Kingdom, by descent from the above
Private collection, London, United Kingdom, by descent from the above
Footnote
Typically depicted in the form of canopic jars, Duamutef was one of the four sons of Horus and charged with protecting the stomach of the deceased for use in the afterlife. As canopic jars went out of fashion, wax (or wax covered) figures began to emerge to serve a similar function, without the need to hold the physical stomach. It is likely that figures such as this were covered in beeswax as it was symbolically associated with the ideas of renewal and vitality.
For similar please see; L.M. Berman, Catalogue of Egyptian Art; The Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, 1999), pp. 379-380, no. 287-288. In addition, there are also several examples in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; see accession numbers 25.3.159 and 25.3.154.