Bidspirit auction | Shabti of Tel.

Shabti of Tel. - Shabti of Tel. New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, reign of Thutmose III, 1479 - 1426 BC. H 24.3cm. Limestone, polychrome painted. Probably from Deir el-Medineh, Thebes West, eastern necropolis. Finely worked face with a tripartite blue wig. The chest is adorned with a broad, multi-part neck collar. Underneath, six horizontal registers with the text of the 6th saying of the Book of the Dead in engraved hieroglyphics: 'Enlightenment to the foreman Tel, the Righteous, he says: O Shabti, if you count and if you assign the foreman Tel, the righteous, to any work that is done there, as a man in his duty, evil is imposed on him there, to cross the sands of the east to the west. 'Here I am', you shall say daily there in the underworld. You are called!' Slightly chipped and abraded on the head and body, parts of the feet broken, part from right foot up to the second register of hieroglyphs broken and reattached, colour on feet modern, colours wonderfully preserved. Marvelous piece of art!