Egyptian
An Egyptian bronze and glass inlaid ostrich feather from an atef crown, Late Period to Ptolemaic, circa 664 - 30 BC
Bronze and glass
Length: 10.7 cm
Composed of a feather emerging from above a ram's horn, surmounted with a uraeus. The feather surface is inlaid with most of the blue glass rods remaining, several of bright...
Composed of a feather emerging from above a ram's horn, surmounted with a uraeus. The feather surface is inlaid with most of the blue glass rods remaining, several of bright cobalt blue, others in pale blue. The rearing uraeus is inlaid with red and blue glass and surmounted by a sun disc. There is a tang remaining on the feather for attachment to the crown of the god, and there is a loop on the underside of the horn, once for suspension of further uraei
Provenance
UK private collection of Werner Forman (1921-2010), formed between 1950 and 1980The Czech-born art photographer spent his life travelling the world photographing works of art from museums, private collections and archaeological sites. Perhaps inevitably, this award-winning photographer built an extensive and eclectic collection that also included Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Islamic and Tribal art. For an example of one of Forman's publications on ancient Egypt, see: S. Quirke and W. Forman, Hieroglyphs and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, 1996.
“I had something different in me, a hungry eye…Beauty, a phenomenon very hard to describe, would always fascinate me. I was, and still am, a fan of all things beautiful…In each and every photograph I try and capture this beauty. Through creating an appropriate atmosphere, through appropriate lighting…and through appropriate setting.”
Werner Forman (1921-2010)
Literature
This cast bronze plume from the right side of an Atef crown once belonged to a monumental statue of the god Osiris. The Atef crown combined the Hedjet, the White Crown of Upper Egypt, with an ostrich feather on each side, and symbolised Osiris’s authority over the underworld. The statue may have been a very large votive statuette or perhaps from a cultic context, within a temple shrine.For a similar example of an inlaid plume see the Brooklyn Museum, acc. no. 53.76.2: Five Years of Collecting Egyptian Art, 1951–1956, New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1956, pp. 46–77, cat. no. 54, pl. 78; also see the Brooklyn Museum, acc. no. 58.94 for a large wood head of Osiris which is likely close to the head from which this plume originally came.