An Egyptian bronze Osiris-Canopus
Roman Period, circa 1st-2nd Century A.D.
The canopic jar body cast in relief with a winged scarab supporting a sun-disc with uraei, a naos surmounted by falcons above, flanked on each side by three deities, including Harpocrates, surmounted biy the head of Osiris wearing a striped tripartite wig and double feather crown with ram's horns, sun disc and uraeus, and a small false beard, dotted hatching at the shoulder, a wreath around the foot, a falcon on the reverse wearing a sun disc, 12cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private collection, Geneva.
Private collection, Europe, acquired from the above in 2006.
Cf. a similar example at the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam, acc. no. 8023 - the hatching at the shoulder is described as a mesh with pearls, and this example is on an offering-table shaped pedestal.
The god Osiris-Canopus was named for the city of Canopus on the western coast of the Nile delta, where the cult of the deity flourished. Iconographically, the jar is thought to represent the abundance brought by the waters of the Nile. Imagery of the god appeared on Alexandrian coins from the 1st Century A.D. onwards, reaching prominence in the 2nd Century in Egypt and beyond. After a visit to Canopus the Emperor Hadrian had an image made in basalt of Osiris-Canopus for his villa at Tivoli (now in the Vatican Museums, Gregoriano Egizio, inv. no. 22852).
This lot is subject to the following symbols: *
* VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on hammer price and the prevailing rate on buyer’s premium