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EC8 Wooden lion-headed furniture terminal

EC8

Wooden lion’s head, probably a terminal from a piece of furniture. This was once part of the Rustafjaell collection purchased by Wellcome.

Lions were associated with rebirth and are depicted on chairs/thrones from the Middle Kingdom onwards and funerary beds from the New Kingdom onwards. However, lion-headed thrones are mentioned as early as the Pyramid Texts.

PT 1124 reads: ‘He [the king] sits on this iron throne of his, the faces of which are those of lions, and its feet are the hooves of the Great Wild Bull”

Lot 151 of the 1906 Sotheby’s sale of Rustafjael material reads: Supports of Chairs or Thrones, shaped as the foreparts of lions [Plate XVII, 23]; two tall standing Figures of Men, and various fragments; all of wood. 11. It is possible that this is the lot from which the lion head was purchased.

A lion-headed funerary bed is depicted in stela W1041

 

Further Reading: 

Killen, G.P. 1980 (vol 1), 1994 (Vol 2), Ancient Egyptian Furniture. Warminster: Aris and Phillips. 

Killen, G.P. 1994, Egyptian Woodworking and Furniture. Princes Risborough: Shire Egyptology.

 

Further Reading: 

Killen, G.P. 1980 (vol 1), 1994 (Vol 2), Ancient Egyptian Furniture. Warminster: Aris and Phillips. 

Killen, G.P. 1994, Egyptian Woodworking and Furniture. Princes Risborough: Shire Egyptology.

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