EGYPTIAN BENNU BIRD STATUETTE

Ca. 323 BC-200 AD. Ptolemaic Dynasty - Roman Period. A statuette of a Bennu bird. It is a pale buff colour with reddish-brown patches, which suggests it was made from Nile silt clay and coated with a wash made from the paler and pricier marl clay to look more expensive. It is shown crouching with its feet together, its wings closed along its back, with its long neck bent back against the body. It has heron-like features, including a long beak and neck. Its eyes are rendered using shallow sunken relief for the sclerae, and plumes run from the head backwards onto the body, plumes which are diagnostic of this mythical bird. The Bennu bird was a deity associated with the sun, creation, and rebirth. It was said to be part of the soul of Ra, and it flew over the primordial waters at the creation of the universe. Herodotus claimed the Egyptians told him it lived for 500 years before dying and being reborn in an egg made of myrrh, leading him to equate it to the phoenix and leading many to think it is the inspiration for the idea of a phoenix. Size: L:58mm / W:88mm ; 115g. From a London private family collection; formerly acquired on the UK art market in the 1960s - 1970s; thence by descent.