Part of a naos sistrum in white faience, depicting the head of the goddess Hathor on both of the larger sides. The goddess is represented frontally, the round face framed by small cow’s ears on either side. The almond-shaped eyes are recessed to hold glass inlays, as are the tapering eyebrows. On one side, the original blue inlays remain in the brows. The other facial features are carved in very low relief, with the broad nose and straight-lipped mouth surrounded by the full cheeks. The goddess wears a long, braided wig, falling in two locks over the chest that each end in a single curl. A large, highly elaborate wesekh collar extends from below the chin, arranged in tiers alternating between incised patterns of lines, triangles, and florals. Atop the goddess’s head is a cornice, carrying the base of a naos, or shrine, lined with uraeus-serpents wearing the solar disc. On the two thin sides of the sistrum, above the shoulders of the goddess, rises a larger uraeus cobra, with flared hood.

Sistra are percussive musical instruments, akin to a rattle. Formed from a thin cylindrical handle holding a U-shaped frame pierced horizontally with crossbars that may hold rings for additional noisemaking. When shaken, the elements knock together to produce anything from a soft clank to a loud jangling. Sekhem refers to the simpler U-shaped instrument, while the naos sistrum is known onomatopoeically as a sesheshet. Sistra were sacred instruments used in dances and religious ceremonies, and often associated with the goddess Hathor.

Hathor was one of the major goddesses of the Egyptian pantheon, who held a wide range of roles. She was a sky deity, mother/consort of Horus and Ra, and therefore the symbolic mother of the pharaohs. She served as one of the Eyes of Ra, taking on a vengeful aspect to protect him from his enemies. She was also associated with joy, beauty, dance, music, love, sexuality, maternal care, and femininity in general. Hathor helped souls to transition to the afterlife. Her maternal and celestial aspects were frequently expressed by representing the goddess in the form of a cow, but she tended to be depicted as a woman wearing a horned headdress and sun disc. Other aspects of Hathor include a lioness, a cobra, and a sycamore tree.

Published

Ingrid Gamer-Wallert, Vermerk: Fundort unbekannt (Tübingen, 1997), no. 115, pp. 150-154, 283.

Provenance

Previously with Dr Otto Burchard (1892-1965), Cairo, by at least 1961.
Private Collection of Erwin Oppenländer (1901-1988), Waiblingen, Germany, acquired from the above on 26 November 1961, accompanied by handwritten inventory card, no. 1551/5870.
Thence by descent.
ALR: S00274664, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.

Note on the Provenance

Dr Otto Burchard (1892-1965) was born on 5 May 1892. He received his highschool diploma in 1910, and went on to study at the trade school in Heidelberg. From 1911-1912, Burchard had an internship in the art trade in Shanghai, which prompted his 1913 study of sinology, ethnology and art history in Leipzig. During the First World War, he was discharged from the army in July 1916 due to injury. He opened his first gallery, dealing in historical and contemporary art, in Berlin in 1920. He then opened Dr. Otto Burchard & Co. GmbH in 1927, which grew to have offices in New York, Berlin, Beijing, and Shanghai. Burchard moved to Beijing in 1929/30, and his Berlin firm was forced to liquidate under Nazi rule in 1935. In 1946, Burchard relocated to New York, and then moved to London about five years later.

Erwin Oppenländer (1901-1988) was born in Waiblingen near Stuttgart in 1901, where he continued to live and work as a manufacturer until his death in 1988. He was a discerning collector, gathering a wide range of high-quality antiquities from auction houses and art dealers, from 1930 onwards. Oppenländer had contacts throughout the art world, with some of his earliest acquisitions coming directly from the collection of archaeologist and art dealer Pierre Mavrogordato in Berlin. He was highly selective, with a refined aesthetic sense, and grew his collection without acquiring any duplicate objects. He collected works from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and the Roman Empire. His glass collection, which stretched from the invention of glass in about 2500 BC to 11th Century AD Byzantine and Islamic glassware, was particularly famous. Much of it was exhibited at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg and the Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Cologne in 1974, and in 2003, 350 items were purchased by the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. A group of 161 ancient Mesopotamian cylinder seals from Oppenländer’s collection were acquired by the Freie Universität Berlin in 1967 for use as a teaching collection. By contrast, his Egyptian collection is relatively unknown to the public, although select items appeared in 20th-century exhibitions in Munich, Stuttgart, and Hanover.

Part of a Naos Sistrum