“I have my doubts on that point,” I replied.
“Then will not the gentleman apply his test and smell it?” asked my friend, with the ghost of a smile on his face.
No, the gentleman would not smell it. The odour pervaded the whole room as it was, and I verily believe the old scoundrel had boiled down a piece of mummy and painted the statue with the liquid, either to hide the smell of the new wood, or to play off a joke upon me. Finally I bought the thing for three shillings, although he had asked £14 for it; but I had to cover it all over with varnish to seal up the smell before I could keep it in my room. For that reason it appears rather more shiny than the other figures.
Horus Hawk
[Plate III], No. 6 represents a Nubian of an early dynasty. There is a cartouche and an inscription on the base. It stood in the window of a shop in Luxor in company with several other wooden figures. The dealer told me a long story about his brother having died, and how he had taken over the antiquities belonging to him, and was selling them at a very cheap rate. The man assured me that the statue was a genuine antiquity, but I had my doubts about it. Our bargaining was not a long process, and I bought it for a small sum. As I went out of the shop, the man said “I hope you will have good luck with the antīca,” which at once told me what I had already suspected, that it was indeed a fraud. And yet it is cleverly made. The nose has been rubbed down to flatten it after the manner of the ancient statues. The back is beautifully moulded, and the splitting of the wood very cleverly done, but the sculptor had not taken the pains with his work that the ancient Egyptians were accustomed to do. The ears are badly shaped and the hair should have stood up a little further from the forehead. The legs are too short, the ancient Egyptian Statues being remarkable for small heads, broad shoulders, fineness about the hips, and long powerful limbs. The feet are badly moulded, and not up to the standard of ancient work. The cartouche on the base is poorly cut, and in the inscription on the side one of the letters is placed upside down.
The removal of a small piece of wood with a knife showed it to be deeply stained, but underneath the staining the wood was white. The most important test, however, for wooden reproductions is the smell of the wood. The hawk here represented is about one foot in height, carved out of wood and painted. The wings are a dull green and the breast and back a light brown, with a decoration upon the back. As a rule these figures have a crown above the head, but in this specimen it had been broken off. These figures are frequently to be met with in the Mousky.
PLATE IV
FUNERARY FIGURES IN WOOD AND PLASTER.