Two Egyptian glazed composition models of a hoe and a seed basket
New Kingdom, late 18th-early 19th Century, circa 1300 B.C.
The hoe with glazed composition handle and wood blade; the lentoid seed basket with pierced handles, 5.8cm and 3.9cm long respectively (2)注脚Provenance:
Hoe: with Galerie du Sycomore, Paris.
Martin Heinz collection, acquired from the above in the early 1980s.
Private collection, Europe, acquired from the above in August 2002.

Published: K. Küster, Im Schatten des Pharaoh: zum Totenkult in alten Ägypten, Karlsruhe, 1998, no. 23.

Seed basket: Fürsten von Hohenzollern collection, Germany.
Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 8 November 2001, lot 268 (part).
Private collection, Europe, acquired at the above sale.

Both published: C.A.R. Andrews and J. van Dijk (ed.), Objects for Eternity: Egyptian Antiquities from the W. Arnold Meijer Collection, Mainz, 2006, p. 73, no. 2.02.

In the early New Kingdom, the idea developed that the shabti was responsible for the agricultural tasks demanded of the deceased in the afterlife. As the iconography of shabtis became increasingly associated with agriculture from the reign of Thutmosis IV onwards, shabtis were occasionally buried equipped with miniature tools. These were relevant to their function, as detailed in Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead, to 'stir the earth and transport it'.

For similar examples of miniature glazed composition hoes and baskets, see the Louvre Museum, Paris, inv. nos. N 4300, 4331, 4325, 4329.