Ushebti for Nehen, the Pharaoh's scribe. Ancient Egypt, 18th Dynasty, c. 1550 - 1295 BC.

Ushebti for Nehen, the Pharaoh's scribe. Ancient Egypt, 18th Dynasty, c. 1550 - 1295 B.C.
Fayenza.
Provenance:
- Tomb find prior to 1870.
- From the collection of Thomas Allworthy (d. 1979), thence by descent to the present owner.
Antiquities collector, who sold a small number of pieces at Sotheby's, May 19, 1956.
- Private collection, Essex, UK.
Good condition. Intact.
Measurements: 9 cm (height).

The ushebti that we now bid was made to be part of the grave goods of the tomb of Nehen, scribe of the pharaoh. In the civilization of Ancient Egypt, the function of the scribe was to write important documents, taking care of secretarial services. It was a fundamental character, cultured, expert in the hieroglyphic and pictographic writing, and knowledgeable of the secrets of the calculation, being the only one capable of assessing taxes, ensuring the construction works and transcribing the orders of the pharaoh.

The ushebtis are small statuettes that were deposited in the tombs as part of the funerary trousseau of the deceased. The oldest preserved examples come from the Middle Empire, although we already find references to them in texts from the end of the Ancient Empire. Throughout time they always maintained the same function in the religious sphere but, while during the Middle Empire they were conceived as the representation of their owner before Osiris in the tasks of tillage in the kingdom of the shadows, replicas of the deceased, from the New Empire onwards they came to be seen as servants or slaves of the deceased, being made in large quantities.