Late Period, 664-332 BC. A carved alabaster canopic jar with separate lid; the jar with rounded shoulder and smooth tapering sidewall, chamfered rim and internal lip; the lid carved into a representation of a baboon's head, the manifestation of the god Hapi (Hapy), an old collector's label to the underside; incised rectangular panel divided into four columns with hieroglyphic text; accompanied by a scholarly note by Edmund S. Meltzer PhD which states: 'The Canopic jar has a lid in the shape of a baboon's head, representing Hapy, one of the Four Sons of Horus. The body of the jar is inscribed with four vertical columns of hieroglyphs reading from right to left, with column dividers and a surrounding border. The text reads as follows: (1) dd-mdw inn nbt-Hwt: Hp.i * sA stp-sA.i (2) Hr ir(t) mk(t) n Hpy ntt** im.i sA (3) wsir Sbn*** ms n Sana**** (4) mAa-xrw sA Hpy wsir Sbn*** pw Hpy Translation (1) Recitation by Nephthys: I conceal Sehetep(y)*, protection, I protect (2) in the act of making the protection of Hapy who is** in me, the protection (3) of the Osiris Sheben*** son of Shana****, (4) Justified, the protection of Hapy, the Osiris Sheben is Hapy. Notes: * I am taking this as a writing of sHtpy, a title of Osiris, listed in Wörterbuch IV, p.222 ** The feminine form ntt is written for what should be the masculine form nty. This type of error becomes increasingly common as one goes through the New KIngdom, Third Intermediate and Late Periods. *** I am reading this name as Sbn (Sheben) which isn't listed in Ranke's Personennamen. It occurs twice in this inscription and has some unusual and interesting features. (1) What I am reading as the alphabetic sign S has an oblique vertical stroke; I think that this is from the influence of hieratic writings of the sign (cf. Hieratische Paläographie III p.31 #335"). (2) The first writing includes an eye but the second doesn't; I think that this is possibly influenced by the presence of an eye in the root Sp (Wörterbuch IV p.443; for an alternation of Sp and Sb see Personennamen I p.325. (3) The bird that follows the alphabetic signs bn is that which is listed as bn in Wörterbuch I p.457. **** This name is also not listed in Personennamen. I think that the most likely time range for this jar and its inscription is the Late Period, c. 7th-4th centuries BCE; the Boston Fine Arts exhibition catalogue Mummies & magic pp.190-191, and Salima Ikram & Aidan Dodson The Mummy in Ancient Egypt, pp.291-292. The present inscription follows the convention of Canopic texts dating to the Late Period by including a pun on the name of the Son of Horus represented and mentioned in the jar (here Hapy, Egyptian Hpy) with another word in the text, in this case HP.i 'I conceal'.' 11.5 kg total, 35cm (13 3/4"). Property of a gentleman living in central London; acquired from Sotheby’s, New York, USA, 8 June 2011, lot 94; previously in the private collection of Charles Pillsbury, New Hampshire, USA; formerly in the private collection of Henry Bourne Pillsbury, acquired prior to 1960; accompanied by an academic translation of the hieroglyphic inscription by Dr. Edmund S. Meltzer PhD and a scholarly note TL5358 by Dr Ronald Bonewitz; this lot has also been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no. 10429-170143. [A video of this lot is available to view on TimeLine Auctions website.]