Egyptian Ushabti Figure

Oops --Thanks for that, @Collecting Nut!!! It's still Very, Very Morning here in Pacific Time Land, and I hadn't reread your (outstanding) OP. ...Yike, there's still coffee! The day can only get better.

 

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I figured it was something like that. lol Get your coffee so you don’t suffer from withdrawal. Have a great day.

 

Nice thread although it’s not about coins
I have always been very interested in Ancient Egypt and visited that country several times.
I wanted to start a collection of shabti’s but found out that it is a minefield cause of the huge amount of (good) fakes that are on the market. It’s just like ancient coins, know the dealer. Provenance is everything!

There is a forum from Dr. Bron Lipkin with lots of information about fakes and where you can find people who are willing to help if you have any questions.
https://groups.io/g/AncientArtifacts

Btw, I do have a small collection of three shabti’s with old provenance. I got them a long time ago. I will add the pics later.

 

I agree completely with the recommendation of the Ancient Artifacts group. Bron Lipkin's antiquities website is also enormously informative, with pages and pages on how to recognize fake ushabtis, scarabs, and other artifacts. Egyptian and from other cultures. He also has a gallery of items for sale; I've purchased from him a couple of times. The website link is http://www.collector-antiquities.com/shop/gallery.html. The pages on fake ushabtis begin at http://www.collector-antiquities.com/real-or-fake/fake-egyptian/fake-ushabtis.html .

Regarding the comments by @Tejas, there was certainly a sea of fake Egyptian antiquities for sale in the 1870s in Egypt, as there is now. (Now, I believe, it's illegal to buy genuine ones there -- unlike a century ago, when genuine ushabtis were sold at the Cairo Museum.) The vast majority, though, were cheap tourist copies, just as one sees on Ebay every day. Along with the not-cheap ones sold at Sadigh for decades until quite recently. In any event, I think buying only from dealers who are knowledgeable and specialize in antiquities is at least as important for ushabtis and other artifacts as it is for ancient coins. Ancient coin dealers who sell a few antiquities on the side aren't necessarily the best sources. I simply can't comment on Z.'s expertise, even if he does have a good reputation in the coin area, although I do find his vast and unending supply of ushabtis in all price ranges to be a bit eyebrow-raising.

 

Thank you for the translation, @ancient coin hunter! Your admirable skill in interpreting hieroglyphics would be challenging to acquire as I've read that the same character can represent a word, syllable, or letter, depending upon context. It's an interesting and complex language- good thing that the Rosetta Stone was found as a key to cracking the code!

 

Desecrating or damaging a ushabti will keep that living image (tewet-ankh) from assisting the deceased in the afterlife, creating problems for the tomb occupant who won't have as much help as they had hoped!