An Egyptian fragmentary limestone pair statue of a man and a woman,...

An Egyptian fragmentary limestone pair statue of a man and a woman,

possibly New Kingdom, early 18th Dynasty

the inscription on the back identifying the woman as "his wet nurse Iyt-her-dit", both have delicately carved elliptical eyes and their arms entwined, her fingers placed protectively around the unidentified male’s left shoulder, she wears her wig tucked behind her ears, four fragmentary columns of text remain on the back:

column1: begins with the hotep-di-nesu offering formula, but the deity of whom the offering is asked is an unidentified falcon;

column 2: has the usual details of the offerings: fowl, fine linen, incense;

column 3: ends the offering formula "on which the god lives" for the ka of Akh[……], the remainder of the name unknown;

column 4: has text remaining referring to "his wet nurse Iyt-her-dit";

further unintelligible hieroglyphic text at the base of the proper left side of the throne, 15.2cm high, 15.5cm wide, 6cm deep

Provenance: Acquired just after WWI by the vendor's grandfather Thomas Frederick Salter (1896-1975) who was a dispatch rider and fine furniture dealer who lived in the Bristol area until his death in the 1970s; thence by descent