An Egyptian limestone round-topped stele for Padi-Bast
Akhmim, Ptolemaic Period, circa 4th Century B.C.
Carved in sunken relief, with a winged sun-disc above a plumed headdress, flanked by couchant figures of the jackal-headed god Anubis, the panel below showing two figures of the deceased facing right and left, their hands raised in supplication, the figure on the left worshipping a barque carrying Isis, a sun god, his disc behind him, and a jackal-headed god, a short vertical column of hieroglyphic text reading: 'Praising Re when he sets in life', the right hand figure worshipping a falcon-headed deity, Re-Harakhty, three vertical columns of hieroglyphic text between them reading: 'Praising Re-Harakhty when he rises in the eastern horizon of heaven (by) the Osiris, the royal scribe, the [...], Padi-Bast, son of the sema-priest, the imy-is-priest, the hem-ka--priest, the [...] scribe of the divine booth of Min, Horus', with seventeen lines of hieroglyphic text below, replicating text from Chapter 15 of the Book of the Dead, naming Padi-Bast as a royal scribe, the son of the scribe Horus and his mother Neit, listing his titles including priest of the ka (soul), uteb of Geb (husband of the sky goddess Mut), and scribe of the divine hall of Min, and with several hymns to the sun god Re-Harakhty, 70.5cm high, 45cm wide注脚Provenance:
Lady V.S. Meux (1847-1910) collection, Theobald's Park, Hertfordshire.
Offered for sale by Waring & Gillow Ltd, who held an auction of Lady Meux's collection at Theobald's Park on 15-26 May 1911, lot 1527a, though the stele remained at Theobald Park until rediscovery between 1969-1972. The stele then remained in situ until the Bonhams auction.
Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 4 July 1995, lot 47.
Gottfried and Helga Hertel collection, Cologne, acquired at the above sale.

Published:
E.A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Antiquities in the possession of Lady Meux at Theobald's Park, London, 1896, p. 135, no. 53.
P. Munro, Die spätägyptischen Totenstelen, Glückstadt, 1973.
M.-T. Derchain-Urtel, Priester im Tempel, Wiesbaden, 1989, p.236.

The name Padi-Bast means 'He whom the goddess Bast has given', and was a common name from the Late Period onwards. Padi-Bast held numerous priesthoods, including that of the sema-priest, and may have had responsibility for the clothing of cult statues. The prayers and hymns on this stele are directed to various manifestations of the sun god Re: Harakhty (the rising sun), Khepre (the midday sun), and Atum (the setting sun). The dedication on this stele expresses the hope that the deceased will join with the sun god on his eternal journey through the sky in the Day-Barque and Night-Barque.

This stele is very similar to Stele 892 in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek; this stele has the same spelling mistakes as the Copenhagen stele, and the text is practically identical, intimating that they were made in the same workshop. For the Copenhagen stele, see O. Koefoed-Petersen, Les Stèles Égyptiennes, Copenhagen, 1948, p.48, no. 63.

Lady Valerie Susan Meux acquired her collection of nearly 1800 objects during two visits to Egypt in 1882 and 1895-6. Lady Meux tried to leave her collection to the British Museum, but the trustees declined her bequest, resulting in the Waring & Gillow sale of 1911.