Lot 870
Well-Crafted Bronze Figure of Horus Falcon on a Shrine Base. Egypt, c. 400-300 BC. The Egyptian falcon god well modeled with chased feathering and detailing. He wears a double crown and uraeus, and stands on a hollow cavetto-corniced, rectangular shrine base. Bronze exceptionally preserved, with handsome red, brown, and green patina. Length: 6-1/2". An outstanding bronze, suitable for either private or public collections.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 15,000.
Christies, London; Property of a Lady. Cf. S. D'Auria et al., Mummies and Magic, the Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1988, p. 236, no. 195 for a similar coffin.
Numerous falcon cults were scattered throughout Egypt, not all of those belonging to Horus. Nevertheless the god did have many local cults. In the Late Period and Graeco-Roman Periods falcons were mummified by the thousands and interred in sacred animal necropoleis. The bird corpses, not always complete, were tightly wrapped, often in typical mummiform drapings, and sometimes supplied with cartonnage falcon masks. The mummies could then be placed in boxes or coffins. In the Late Period bronze boxes surmounted by figures of falcons were also used to house the falcon mummies. It is these which is being replicated on a smaller scale in this modeling.
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