Bidspirit auction | RARE EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE FALSE DOOR

RARE EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE FALSE DOOR STELE OF IMA WITH HIEROGLYPHS - FULLY TRANSLATED - End of the Old Kingdom / Beginning of the First Intermediate Period, Dynasties VII-VIII, Ca. 2181 - 2160 BC. A beautiful limestone Egyptian false door consisting of a recessed central panel surrounded by two columns and one upper register of inscribed hieroglyphs. It belonged to Ima, a high official at the royal court, as shown in his titles: “King's acquaintance”, “King's nobleman of the house of the dignitaries” and “ Inspector of the spear(?)”. This title is a unicum, in fact it is not found in other known monuments. This false door has all the canonical parts: the decorated torus, the upper lintel, the outer door jambs, the lower lintel and the inner jambs. Between the inner jambs there is a narrow niche suggesting the entrance to a door with a rolled-up mat (drum) above it. In the space between the outer jambs there is a panel with a scene in sunk-relief : the deceased seated in front of the offering table. He is also depicted in sunk-relief on the outer jambs, standing up, looking inwards, with the emblems of his rank, the staff and the sceptre, in his hands. In the inner right jamb, a standing up woman is depicted in sunkrelief, looking inwards, with a lotus flower in her right hand. Above her figure a hieroglyphic text reports her titles and name: “King's acquaintance, priestess of Hathor, Pef”, she is probably Ima’s wife. For similar see: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Accession Number: 64.100 (model). Size: 700mm x 410mm; Weight: 23kg Size: 700mm x 410mm; Weight: 23kg. Provenance: Property of a London collector; formerly with Mayfair family S. A., acquired from a London professor in the late 1970s. This item has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database and comes with a confirmation letter. This piece is accompanied by an authentication report from Simone Musso, consultant curator for Egyptian antiquities at the Stibbert Museum, Florence, Italy, member of the Nuri Archaeological Expedition.