ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Finial with Tefnut as Cobra

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period-Ptolemaic Period

Date722-30 BCE

MediumBronze

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions3 5/16 x 1 x 1 in., 55 g (8.4 x 2.6 x 2.6 cm, 1 15/16 oz.)

Object number2018.010.052

Label TextCeremonial wooden staffs were topped with bronze finials of cobras, falcons, and other animals. This finial depicts a rearing cobra on top of a papyrus. Similar cobra finials were found in the falcon catacombs in North Saqqara. Other papyriform cobra finials were discovered at the Greek settlement of Naukratis.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesHotel des Ventes d'Avignon, Meubles Objets d'Art (22 Mai 1977), lot 25.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 48.

ProvenancePurchased by S.A.M. Sanousrit from Hotel des Ventes d'Avignon, France, May 22, 1977, lot 25. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1977-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

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Not on view

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