Gazette Drouot - C apencheres

THE MAGAZINE AUCTION RESULTS
The blue gold of the Pharaohs
Who won the battle of Qadesh: Seti
I or Muwatali II? It all depends on
which side you're on, the Egyptian
or Hittite. On the other hand,
the victory of this shawabti is
incontestable. Having been solidly estimated at
€200,000, it harvested a mammoth €917,000. “Broken
but not defeated” could be its motto, since nearly
3,300 years after its fabrication, it continues to faithfully
serve the memory of the Pharaoh for whom it was
made. Seti I was the second sovereign of the 19th
dynasty and the father of the famous Ramses II. An
accomplished soldier and great builder, he built
himself a tomb from scratch in the Valley of the Kings,
which is where our shawabti comes from. It belonged
to Sommerset Lowry Corry, 2nd count of Belmorre,
financier of Giovanni Battista Belzoni, who discovered
Seti I's tomb in 1817, with its walls covered with fabulous
paint décor. It is extremely rare to find shawabtis
made of siliceous blue ceramic like that of this
USEFUL INFO
Where ? Paris-Drouot
When ? 24 October
Who ? Thierry de Maigret auction house. M. Lebeurrier.
How much ? €2,078,000
88 GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL I N° 19
HD
€917,000 Egypt, New Empire, 19th dynasty, tomb of Seti I,
Valley of the Kings, no. VR 17. Ushabti inscribed
on seven lines (two missing) with the two cartouches
“Nebmaatre” and “Osiris, son of Re, Seti beloved of Ptah”,
in blue faience with black highlights, h. 22.9 cm.
Pharaoh. Only six other examples are known to exist,
all of them conserved in museums. A foreign buyer
acquired this one. It was the climax of the sale of the
collection of Charles Bouche (1828-2010), a dealer who
specialised in military memorabilia from the Empire
period, from Napoleon to the conquest of Egypt, by
collecting archaeology. Sylvain Alliod