Description
Name owner: Wep-Mes
Title owner: The illuminated, The Osiris
Dimensions (hxwxd): 11.0 x 4.2 x 3.8 cm
Translation hieroglyphs: The illuminated, The Osiris, Wep-Mes, true of voice, he speaks: (chapter six follows)
Preservation: Fragmentary, bottom halve only, left foot chipped.
R-R: Not in Ranke, although “Wep-Wa-Wet-Mes” is (R-R: 77.23)
Provenance: Unknown, possibly Saqqara. Acquired in Egypt in the 1960’s by a collector resident in Paris. Ex-Emmacha collection. Currently in a Dutch collection.
Comments: Although this is just the lower part of a shabti it is still remarkable in several ways. The quality of this fragment is clear when looking at the probably once beautifull Ba-bird on the chest of which just the lower part of the body and tail is preserved on this example. Other striking elements are the dress of daily living wrapped around the hips, a nice belt/cord and the well executed feet in sandals. Finally, the inscription is neatly written, indicating the name of the owner and the usual Chapter Six of the book of the death.
Glenn Janes provided the most up to date overview of these black stone shabtis in Shabticollections Volume 6 (Liverpool). Several other published examples can be found in the Leiden collection (see Schneider) and in Paris (see Bovot). Unfortunately no parallels for Wep-Mes are in any of the publications. Especially some of the Leiden examples are very similar in iconography , so that i have no doubt that this shabti came from the same workshop, dating the shabti to the early part of the 19th Dynasty. See especially the picture of the shabti of Ramessu-Hesy (3.2.5.13) for a parallel of this type of shabti.
