Fig. 1: W588 |
Several
Egyptologists who have visited the Egypt Centre in the past have suggested that
W588 is a fake, mainly because of the modern-looking base. The object can be
traced back to the collection of the Reverend William MacGregor, which was sold
at auction in 1922. W588 was sold as part of lot 576, which was purchased for £5/15 by Harry Stow,
Sir Henry Wellcome’s chief agent (Hardwick 2012, 28). The object is
described in the catalogue as “a painted carved wood figure of a goose, 3½
in. high by 7½ in. long, found at Arab-el-Birk, Middle Empire [Pl. XXXII]”. The
fact that it was illustrated in the plates (fig. 2) shows that the goose was
regarded as one of the most important objects of MacGregor’s vast collection of
approximately 9,000 pieces (Hardwick 2011, 180). A small sticker on one of the
long sides of the base has the printed number 535 in red. This is a well-known
sticker type, which relates to MacGregor’s own numbering system.
Fig. 2: W588, as shown in the MacGregor auction catalogue |
The most
important piece of information from the catalogue is that the object was found
at “Arab-el-Birk”. When catalogued at the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in
1923 (number A15379), the provenance had morphed into “Arab al Berkh” (fig. 3). So where
exactly is this site? I spent a considerable amount of time over the past few years trying to find it, as had the Egypt Centre curator. This included searching alternative spellings and asking Egyptian colleagues, all without success; it
was turning into a wild goose
chase! Several months ago, I searched the MacGregor catalogue and found that lot 819
contained an object “found at Arab-el-Birk, opposite Aboutig”. This
led me to Abu Tig (أبو تيج), the third largest city in the Asyut governorate.
With the site of Aysut being well-known for its Middle Kingdom tombs, this
certainly made sense based on the dating of the goose (Regulski & Golia).
Fig. 3: Wellcome flimsy slip for W588 |
Several days
ago, I was browsing through the auction catalogue of Henry
Oppenheimer (1859–1932), a famous London collector, which was sold by
Christie’s between 10–14 July 1936 (Bierbrier 2019, 347). Lot 20
immediately caught my eye: “A wood model of a goose. 3 in. high (80 mm.); 9¼
in. long (235 mm.). VIth Dynasty. The body painted a pale green, the eyes,
mouth and feet black. Found at Assiout in a VIth-Dynasty tomb with four others by
Professor Maspero in 1884, and presented by him to Dr. W. L. Nash. Two of the
others went to the Gizeh Museum, one was bought by Professor Flinders Petrie
and the fourth was given away by Professor Maspero.” An annotation in the
margins of the catalogue notes that the lot was purchased for £22, which was a considerable sum for the day. Unfortunately, it doesn’t state who purchased
this lot. Upon searching the Petrie Museum online catalogue, I found several
wooden geese, one (UC45821) of which shares many details with W588 (fig. 4).
Fig. 4: UC45821 |
UC45821 is a
wooden model of a goose with red feathers, green beak, black eyes, and white belly. Like
W588, it is attached to a rectangular wooden base, which is painted black on
the sides only. The legs, including the rendering of the toes, appear to be the
same as the Swansea goose (fig. 5). Unfortunately, the Petrie Museum catalogue provides no details on its provenance or acquisition.
Fig. 5: Comparison of W588 and UC45821 |
MacGregor is
known to have visited Egypt in 1885, perhaps just a few months after the geese had
been discovered by Gaston Maspero (1846–1816). In fact, in 1886 Maspero invited MacGregor onto his boat (the Tunisah) where Maspero was negotiating the acquisition of a mummy for MacGregor’s collection (info via Bev Rogers). Maspero, Petrie, and MacGregor served
together on the committee of the Burlington Fine Arts Club (BFAC) for many
years (Pierson 2017, 111). Additionally, Walter Llewellyn Nash (1841–1920), who
was mentioned receiving one of the geese in the Oppenheimer catalogue,
was also a member of the BFAC, contributing objects to an exhibition on
Egyptian art in 1895 (Bierbrier 2019, 338). Thus, it is clear that Maspero, Petrie,
MacGregor, and Nash were all acquaintances and so it is certainly possible that
Maspero passed on the geese to them. Questions remain, however. Are W588 and UC45821
two of the five geese found by Maspero in 1884? Where is the goose that was sold in 1936 as part
of the Oppenheimer collection? Did Maspero add the bases to the figures before presenting
them to friends? Moreover, whose tomb did Maspero discover the geese in? If
any readers can shed some light on these questions, I would love to hear!
Fig. 6: W588 |
Bibliography:
Bierbrier, M. L. (2019) Who
was who in Egyptology. London: The Egypt Exploration Society. 5th edition.
Burlington Fine Arts Club (1895)
Exhibition of the art of ancient Egypt. London: Burlington Fine Arts
Club.
Hardwick, T. (2011) ‘Five months
before Tut: Purchasers and prices at the MacGregor sale, 1922’. Journal of
the History of Collections 23, 1: 1–14.
Hardwick, T. (2012) ‘The
obsidian king’s origins: Further light on purchasers and prices at the
MacGregor sale, 1922’. Discussions in Egyptology 65: 7–52.
Houlihan, P. F. and S. M.
Goodman (1986) The birds of ancient Egypt. Natural history of Egypt 1.
Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.
Pierson, S. J. (2017) Private
collecting, exhibitions, and the shaping of art history in London. The
Burlington Fine Arts Club. Oxford: Routledge.
Regulski, I. and M. Golia eds.
[n.d.] Asyut:
Guardian city. London: The British Museum.
Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge
(1922) Catalogue of the MacGregor collection of Egyptian antiquities.
London: Davy.
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