Bonham's Egyptian Sawnoffs

An Egyptian polychrome painted wood sarcophagus
fragment Late Period, circa 664-30 B.C. (al-Ahram after Bonham's catalogue)

The Egyptian artefacts in the mayday London antiquities sale aroused some controversy (see the post above this). There is another aspect here, the presentation of portableised fragments as a whole. So we have bits of a wall, rectangular piece of stone (with eroded edges) framing three heads in a pleasing manner - lot 277, 52 cm long, mounted (Estimate: £10-15,000/ US$ 15-23,000 /€12-18,000) "Egyptian sandstone relief fragment Karnak, Amarna Period Provenance:  "North American private collection, 1970s". Leaving aside the question of how and when it left the site and Egypt, its value is purely decorative (and I suggest only that if lit as in the photo) and of course as a trophy.

But then we have other oddities. Like lot 283 "An Egyptian polychrome painted wood coffin fragment Third Intermediate Period, circa 1069-702 B.C."  sold for £2,500 inc. premium ("Provenance: German private collection, the Ruhr. C. Tautenhahn Collection, Houston, Texas, USA, formed prior to 1980"). This item is marginally attractive because of the oval shape of the wood fragment (natural or helped by a dealer? We are not shown the back or the edges in the catalogue) which frames the representation of a man's arms outstretched, offering a container with unguent and the remains of three columns of text. Now the hieroglyphics are pretty roughly done, the object as a whole was probably not of high quality, and a cynic might wonder whether broken into smaller pieces it was not only more easily smuggled (whenever it was taken out of Egypt) but also more saleable.

Another chunk is lot 350 , an "Egyptian polychrome painted wood sarcophagus fragment Late Period, circa 664-30 B.C."

 Depicting five squatting oarsmen on a boat with a shallow hull, the bow and the stern decorated with two finials in the shape of a lotus flower, the steering oar in the shape of a falcon head, an umber lattice pattern on the upper register, 18in (46cm) long Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000 US$ 2,300 - 3,100 €1,800 - 2,400 Footnotes Provenance: Dutch private collection, acquired in the 1960s. 

Not mentioned are the vertical straight edges which frame the picture. While - to judge from the peg holes -  the one on the right might be original (we are not shown the sides or end of the fragment), my bet is that the one on the left is modern and connected with making a dug-up plank into a portable "art object" for selling to a Dutchman who does not mind a bit of destruction involved in the production of the pretty trophy geegaws he wants to buy. 

Another example of the dismantling of an object to make it more portable and saleable is the so-called "Egyptian wood mummy mask Late Period, circa 664-332 B.C." - Lot 354. Of course this is not a mummy mask at all, but the face block of a wooden coffin. If we could see the back, we'd see the holes by which it was pegged to the boards. This object has lost most of its gesso (it is possibly from a damp tomb, for example in the delta region?) and probably when found by whoever found it consisted of boards pegged together with mud plaster packing. Not very nice for collectors and jolly difficult to transport anyway. The solution adopted was that which produced many so-called "wooden mummy masks" on the current market - a crowbar or adze/digging hoe could easily separate the face-block from the coffin boards which would then be discarded. The face has rather raw features, would look nice tastefully lit. This one had an estimate of £2-3,000/ US$ 3,100 - 4,600 €2,400 - 3,600. the provenance was "Swiss private collection, acquired from Schuler Auction, Zurich in the mid 2000s. Swiss private collection formed in the 1970s" (uh-oh).
 

Lot 335 is a cracker. Note the way that the catalogue photo crops the image just inside the actual ends of the fragment, presumably to hide the rather embarrassingly straight edges. This object has been sawn into pieces- and Bonhams only got one part, this one a suitcase-size bit at 58,5cm long, of the "Egyptian polychrome painted wood sarcophagus fragment for Iah-ir-dis Late Dynastic Period, 26th Dynasty, circa 664-525 B.C."

Composed of the leg area of a coffin with profile figures of the four Sons of Horus in a column on either side, the columns of text with funerary offerings specified as 'incense, clothing, unguent, water, (food)-offerings, a goodly burial, and all good things' for the deceased an untitled man called Iah-ir-dis, son of a man called Pen-maiw, and born to a 'Lady of the House called Senbes', with offerings asked of Osiris and a goddess who is 'Great and Divine Mother', probably Isis, 23in (58.5cm) long [...]  Provenance: Acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on 03 December 1980. Gift of Mr and Mrs Ronald Berger. 

But they obviously got rid of this destructively-commercialised antiquitist embarrassment, nevertheless it sold for £1,875 inc. premium

Egypt challenges a UK auctioneer over 200 'stolen' antiquities Ahram Online, London , Wednesday 1 May 2013