Fake Shabti of a Woman

Fake Shabti of a Woman

A fake Egyptian shabti in the form of a woman, naked to the waist, wearing a long skirt inscribed with unintelligible glyphs. The fabric is mostly orange, tending to buff over the torso and grey over the head and rear of the right shoulder. The reverse shows burnished faceting consistent with being shaped in a mould. This figure has long braided hair, almond shaped eyes, triangular nose and prominent lips. Around the neck is a two-tiered collar. The breasts and stomach are exposed and the arms, poorly formed and very thin, are held by the sides. The hands rest on the top of a skirt. At the waist is a band of vertical lines indicating the top of the skirt. Below this is a rectangular panel surrounded by a double line, inside which are a series of nonsense signs and genuine glyphs. The inscription is not translatable. Below the skirt the legs are recessed in with feet protruding a short way.

The shabti is a fake of a well established type. The form is unattested in shabti figures of any period, and the inscription is a series of nonsense signs mixed with real glyphs. These unintelligible inscriptions, poorly executed, are a common device to lend authenticity to such forgeries. Terracotta shabtis and figurines are unknown from genuine ancient Egyptian pieces.

Fake figurines, including shabtis, were produced in vast numbers in Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for sale to unsuspecting tourists. This example closely matches an uninscribed piece in the British Museum Many examples are known from First World War collections but it is unknown how Pte Chenery came to acquire his collection of fake statues as he apparently never visited Egypt during his war service.

AD 1900 - AD 1915

Height: 190 mm

Width: 50 mm

Depth: 30 mm

C.005.002

QM H14418

© Queensland Museum, Peter Waddington.

Said to have been collected by Pte. F Chenery, Egypt, 1917-18.

Queensland Museum, Brisbane

Hagen, F. & Ryholt, K. S. B. (2016). The antiquities trade in Egypt 1880-1930: the H.O. Lange papers. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, pp. 147-52.

Jones, M. (ed.). (1990). Fake? The Art of Deception. British Museum, no. 272.

Potter, D. (2019). The Mystery of Modern Shabtis. National Museums Scotland Blog. https://blog.nms.ac.uk/2019/10/28/mystery-modern-shabtis/

Schneider, H. (1970). Shabtis: an introduction to the history of ancient Egyptian funerary statuettes with a catalogue of the collection of shabtis in the national Museum of Antiquities at Leiden. Rijksmuseum, vol. II, pp. 5-6.

Wakeling, T.G. (1912). Forged Egyptian Antiquities. A&C Black.

Statuette; Forgery. (n.d.).[Fired clay statuette; mould-pressed]. British Museum, London. 2012,6029.37=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_2012-6029-37

Steindorff, G., & Rosenthal, G. (1947). Fakes and Fates of Egyptian Antiquities: A Supplement to the Catalogue of Egyptian Sculpture. The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 10, 52-59. www.jstor.org/stable/20168799

Queensland Museum Historical Register, H14417-23.

Aubert, J. F., & Aubert, L. (2005). Statuettes funéraires égyptiennes du département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques. Éditions de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, pp. 273-5.

P.005

Mr James Donaldson