SARCOPHAGE, BOIS BITUMÉ, ÉGYPTE, IIIE PÉRIODE INTERMÉDIAIRE, PÉRIODE LIBYENNE, CIRCA 945-664 AV. J.-C. AN EGYPTIAN WOOD COFFIN, THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, LIBYAN PERIOD, 22ND-BEGINNING OF 25TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 945-664 B.C., the lid with naturalistically carved face, wearing a striped wig and broad collar, details in added ochre, the interior of the coffin base decorated with the standing figure of Nut, her outstretched arms in a protective embrace, continuing onto the side panels, with rows of unintelligible hieroglyphic text on each of the short sides, with traces of bitumen and remains of pigment overall, 186cm high, 52cm wide, 50cm deep Footnotes: Provenance: Erik Sidemark (1918-2008) collection, stationed in Cairo between 1951 and 1955. Anonymous sale; Pierre Bergé, Paris, 29 November 2014, lot 70. Although the goddess Nut had long been associated with the protection of the whole of the coffin it was not until the Libyan Period that the iconography of Nut shown on the interior floor of the coffin depicted in a protective embrace is first seen, along with the distinctive yellow text on a black ground. For a similar coffin showing the interior of a sarcophagus with Nut cf. O. Koefoed-Petersen Catalogue des sarcophages et cercueils égyptiens, Glyptothèque Ny Carlsberg, Copenhagen 1951, pl. CII. John Taylor also discusses Libyan Period coffins with Nut iconography, Egyptian Coffins, The British Museum, 1989, pp. 51-52, ill. 41. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com