BPLDC no.: 08_04_000032

Page Title: Prince Ra-Hotep and Princess Nefer-T

Collection: Tupper Scrapbooks Collection

Album: Volume 26: Lower Egypt. Pyramids.

Call no. 4098B.104 v26 (p. 31)

Creator: Tupper, William Vaughn

Description: Scrapbook page containing a photograph of two statues of Egyptian royalty, annotated with quotes and information about the statues.

Subjects: Egypt travel photography statues Egyptian (ancient)

Page size: 33 x 38.1 cm

Annotations: Prince Ra-Hotep and Princess Nefer-t. "These are probably the oldest portrait statues in the world. These people who sit before us side by colored to the life, fresh and glowing as the day they gave the artist his last sitting lived at a time when the great pyramids were not yet built and at a date which is variously calculated as from about 4,000 to 6,300 years from thepresent day. The princess wears her hair precisely as it is still worn in Nubia and her necklace is of a pattern still favored. The eyes of both statues are inserted. The eyeball which is set in an eyelid of bronze, is made of opaque white quartz with an iris of rock-crystal enclosing a pupil of some kind of brilliant metal. This treatment gives to the eyes a look of intelligence which is almost appalling." Amelia B. Edwards "These incomparable statues are most expressive and stand in vitality to the works of any later age in Egypt. They were found in the tomb chamber- Ra-Ho-tep is entitled a royal son [probably of Seneferu]- The signs carved in these tombs are among the earliest known. Instead of full-length burial with coffins, head rests, vases, and provision for a future life , the more usual method of burial at Medum is lying on the left side with the knees drawn up facing the east and without vases or other objects, showing a diversity of beliefsand probably of races." W.M. Flinders Petrie

Language: English, photograph titled in French

Rights: No known restrictions.

Coverage: Egypt

Notes: Title supplied by cataloger, derived from captions or annotated information.

Format: Scrapbooks

Technique: Photographs, Albumen prints

BPL Department: Print Department

Photo 1: Title: 122. Le prince Ra-hotep et la dame Nefer-t.

Caption: Double Group in limestone found in 1870 (1871 Petrie) in a Mastaba near the Pyramid of Meidoum. Mariette assigns them to the end of the III. Dynastie - Petrie to the IV Dynasty B.C. 3998 - they are painted.