Egyptian Limestone Painted Shabti Inscribed for Ir-nu, New Kingdom, 19th-20th Dynasty, 1295-1077 B.C. A tall, elegant limestone shabti inscribed for Ir-nu; the figure with carefully modelled face with large eyes and unnaturally large ears, wearing a neck strap, a long tripartite wig with incised striations and a broad three-band collar; to carry out its duties in the afterlife on behalf of Ir-nu, the shabti holding a pick in its left hand, a hoe in the right and a seed bag hanging over the left shoulder; the position of the hands facing each other rather uncommon; the text beginning in the vertical column running down the front of the figure, continuing in five horizontal bands with pale red-ochre pigment colouring to the top, middle and bottom bands; the same pigment used to colour the implements and also alternates with blue striations of the wig, the neck strap and details of the collar also in blue; the inscription from the Book of the Dead Chapter 6, reading: Vertical column The illuminated one, the Osiris Horizontal rows 1) Ir-nu, true of voice, he says: O, this shabti 2) if one is counted, if one is reckoned to do the work 3) [to do all that is to be done in] the God’s land, to cultivate the riparian lands, transport by boat 4) [sand of] the west to the east, to act 5) at any time, to serve there (you) shall say true of voice(?). Cf. Newberry, P., Funerary Statuettes and Model Sarcophagi, Catalogue général des Antiquités égyptiennes du musée du Caire Nos.46530-48575, Cairo 1930-1957, pp.378-379 (CG 48497), pl. XXI; see Donald, B., 'Funerary Figurines' in Oxford Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, vol 1, New York, 2000, pp.568-569; see also Schneider, H.D., Shabtis. An Introduction to the History of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Statuettes with a Catalogue of the Collection of Shabtis in the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, 3 vols., Leiden 1977, V.2, p.73, (3.2.1.55), pl.100; V.3 p.26. Exhibited: The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) 2016, Booth 430, Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands. 1.4 kg total, 28 cm including stand (11 in.). Carieau family collection, Belgium, acquired in 1952. Ex Maspero collection, Paris, 1963. Acquired from a private European collection, in 1978. Property of a central London gentleman. Accompanied by a copy of a technical report by Edmund S. Meltzer Ph.D. Accompanied by an academic report by Egyptologist Paul Whelan. Accompanied by a scholarly note no.TL05399 by Dr Ronald Bonewitz. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.114477-195971.