4³⁄₄ in. (12 cm.) high

with Charles D. Kelekian (1900-1982), New York (Inv. no. 4249).
Jack Josephson (1930-2022), New York, acquired from the above, 1975.
A Princely Collection, acquired from the above, 2002.
with Aaron Gallery, London.
Art Market, New York, acquired from the above, 2017.
Private Collection, U.S., acquired from the above.
Art Market, U.S., acquired from the above, 2023.
Antiquities, Christie's, New York, 9 April 2024, lot 114.

R.S. Bianchi, "Two Ex-Votos from the Sebennityc Group," The Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, vol. XI, no. 1, January 1981, pp. 32-35, pl. 1.
N.S. Tomoum, The Sculptors' Models of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods: A Study of the Type and Function of a Group of Ancient Egyptian Artefacts, Cairo, 2005, pp. 100-101.

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Lot Essay

This naturalistic depiction of a lion has a pear-shaped head framed along the jawline by the mane, which is composed of inward-curving locks. The grooved, almost smiling mouth is mirrored above by the shallow modelling for the whiskers. The convex eyes are framed by thick lids, and the ears have striated horizontal tufts. The back is flat, with no indication of the grid lines that occur frequently on sculptor’s models. Bianchi (op. cit., p. 34) compares the style of this lion head to two granite statues of lions, their plinths inscribed for the 30th Dynasty Pharoah Nectanebo I, found at the Iseum Campense in Rome, now in the Vatican Museums (see pl. CXC, nos. 279-280 in A. Roullet, The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments of Imperial Rome). For related lion head limestone sculptor’s models, see the examples in Hannover and Cairo, pls. 64a and 64c in Tomoum, op. cit.