NEW KINGDOM, 19TH DYNASTY, REIGN OF SETI I, CIRCA 1290-1279 B.C.

Featuring a vertical register of hieroglyphic inscription facing left, this fragment of temple relief reads “for (or of) Horus of Behdet (Edfu),” a phrase commonly found in royal inscriptions. Traces of the original polychromy remain on each hieroglyph, as well as in the vertical register line to the left. Two related sandstone fragments were offered with this piece at Christie’s London in 1972 (lot 199 and part of lot 200); one bore the cartouche of Seti I, and the style of carving here suggests that both derive from a monument of Seti I, perhaps in Luxor or elsewhere in Upper Egypt or Nubia.