Egypt, Late Dynastic Period, 26th to 31st Dynasty, ca. 664 to 332 BCE. A mold-formed faience pendant of Nephthys, the goddess of night and sleep, covered in lustrous blue-green glaze. Nephthys presents striding with her left leg forward atop an integral plinth, holding both arms to her hips, and wearing a form-fitting sheath dress. Her petite face is framed with the lappets of her tripartite wig, and atop her head is her signature headdress which resembles a temple or estate layout. A suspension hole drilled through the middle of her dorsal pillar suggests this figure was worn on a necklace strand at one time. Size: 0.3" W x 1.1" H (0.8 cm x 2.8 cm); 2.8" H (7.1 cm) on included custom stand.

The goddess Nephthys is one of the oldest deities of ancient Egypt and, accordingly, one of the most symbolically significant. She is the daughter of Geb (god of the earth) and Nut (goddess of the sky), and is the mother of Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming and the dead. Nephthys' association with death and darkness originates from the bipolarity of light and dark she shares with her sister Isis, the goddess of light and rebirth, and the symbols most-commonly associated with the goddess are the temple (as seen on her headdress), the hawk, and the sycamore tree.

Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-Hindman Auction, sale 881, lot 40; ex-property of a Midwest Private Collection; ex-Bearnes, Hampton, and Littlewood, Exeter, UK, 2000s

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#167958

Figure is suspended atop a lucite display block via a metal wire. Minor nicks to figure, fading to glaze, and softening to some finer details, otherwise intact and very good. Great preservation to figural form and most areas of glaze pigment. Obverse of lucite stand reads, "NEBT-HET / [NEPHTHYS] / THE WIFE OF SET."