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AEDRare Egyptian Limestone False Door, 6th Dynasty
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About Auction
LiveSep 13, 2026
This auction presents a richly varied collection spanning fine art, Asian antiques, and decorative objects. Standout modern and contemporary works include pieces by Alice Baber, Syd Solomon, Sam Gilliam, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miro, Peter Max, Pino Daeni, Mark Ryden, and Romero Britto, alongside abstract expressionist and figurative paintings. A notable strength is Vietnamese art, featuring lacquer panels and screens by artists such as Nguyen Sien, Nguyen Van Minh, and Tran Van Ha, plus oils and watercolors by mid- to late-20th-century Vietnamese painters. Helmuth Stone Gallery helmuthstone@gmail.com
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- Lot Description
A large and important Egyptian painted limestone false door for Khnumetkhuit
Old Kingdom, 6th Dynasty, circa 2360–2195 B.C.
Height: 42 5/8 in. (108.3 cm);
Width: 28 in. (71.1 cm);
Depth: 7 in. (17.8 cm)Carved from a single block of limestone, the door of canonical late Old Kingdom type, with a cavetto cornice above a torus frame, three pairs of jambs and lintels, and a recessed central niche representing the doorway. The uppermost register is inscribed in sunk relief with a list of sacred oils. Below, seven vertical bands of red pigment survive on the outer lintel. The central panel is carved in shallow relief with the deceased lady seated on a chair before an offering table bearing a haunch of meat; libation vessels stand on the ground beneath the table. She wears a long tripartite wig. A standard offering list occupies the upper right of the panel. Three members of her family are represented at the lower right; their names are not preserved. The jambs and lintels carry htp-di-nsw offering formulae in sunk relief. Traces of original red and blue pigment remain.
The texts, translated by Dr. Nigel Strudwick (then Assistant Keeper, Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum):Top horizontal register — sacred oils Setj-heb oil, heknu oil, sefetj oil, nekhem oil, twat oil.Outer jambs- An offering which the king and which Osiris, Lord of Busiris, Foremost of the Westerners, Lord of Abydos, give, that an invocation offering may be made for the imakhu Khnumetkhuit. The royal acquaintance, the imakhu in the sight of Osiris, Lord of the West, Khnumetkhuit. Middle jambs- The imakhu in the sight of Anubis who is on his mountain; the imakhu in the sight of the Great God, Lord of Heaven, Khnumetkhuit.The imakhu in the sight of the Lord of […], Khnumetkhuit. Inner jambs- The imakhu Khnumetkhuit.Central panel — offering list A thousand loaves of bread, a thousand jugs of beer, a thousand oxen, a thousand fowl, a thousand items of alabaster, a thousand items of clothing.The owner’s name may be read “She whom Khnum protects” (also rendered Khut-Bati, “She whom Bati, the ram-god, protects”). She bears the title royal acquaintance (rht-nswt) and is styled imakhu(t), the feminine form used in the Old Kingdom for one provided for in the afterlife. She is otherwise unattested. False doors inscribed for women are uncommon; the type is consistent with private mastaba chapels of the 6th Dynasty, most probably at Saqqara.
Provenance: Switzerland, entered 15 January 2004 (“came to Switzerland from U.S.A.”) David Aaron, Ancient Arts & Rare Carpets, London, inv. D1139 / D1039 Acquired from the above, 11 July 2005, (£42,750) United Kingdom export license IPE/02440/05, issued 19 July 2005 (permanent export, Category 1 cultural goods) Private collection, Florida, 2005–present
Documentation accompanying the lot: David Aaron invoice and certified list, 11 July 2005 Application for export of cultural goods and holder’s sheets, licence no. IPE/02440/05 Scholarly report and commentary by Peter A. Clayton, FSA, 3 March 2006, with hieroglyphic translations by Dr. Nigel Strudwick, The British Museum Cover letter from David Aaron to Larry J. D’Urso, Jr., 7 March 2006
Literature cited in the 2006 report Naguib Kanawati, Excavations at Saqqara, I: Northwest of Teti’s Pyramid, Sydney, 1984, pls. 5–6 (for related examples)
Note: In an Old Kingdom tomb chapel the false door was the focus of the offering cult: the place at which food, drink, and prayer were presented so that the ka of the deceased could pass between the burial chambers and the chapel. This example preserves the full architectural scheme—cornice, torus, multiple jambs, seated offering scene, and pigment—together with a named female owner, a combination seldom encountered on the market.
Condition
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