Statuette of Amenhotep

Finely carved wooden statue of a man named Amenhotep, the son of Nefer and Mes. Standing with the left leg advanced and the arms down the sides, holding an object in the right hand. Eyes and eyebrows picked out in black, shaven head and wearing a pleated apron. The base is incised with hieroglyphs filled with blue pigment on the top and right side. Described by Professor Percy Newberry in about 1910 as being of very fine work and perfect preservation. Joseph Mayer bought this object in 1850 from Joseph Sams, a Darlington bookseller, who himself had purchased it between 1830 and 1838 as part of the Egyptian collection of Charles Bogaert, a Bruges businessman. It has been suggested that Bogaert recieved his collection as repayment of a debt from Jean-Baptiste de Lescluze, a Belgian shipowner and merchant who had collected the material in Egypt between 1824 and 1825.