Large Egyptian Standard Top with Bes and Monkeys

Large Egyptian Standard Top with Bes and Monkeys
Third Intermediate Period 1069-664 BC

Provenance : Property of a French gentleman(S. Vay ); previously with Sotheby's, New York, lot 10, 8 June 1994 previously in an old American collection; accompanied by copies of the relevant Sotheby's catalogue pages.

This Bes is an ancient Egyptian deity worshipped as a protector of households and, in particular, of mothers, children and childbirth. Bes later came to be regarded as the defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad
He is regularly depicted as a dwarf with large ears, long-haired and bearded, with prominent genitals, and bow-legged
Turquoise blue in color with black details, modeled in relief on all sides, the dwarf god standing on a papyrus umbel, crowned in a tall five-plumed headdress, holding an infant in his bent left arm, a simian below in between his legs, a pair of simians flanking his thighs and another pair flanking his ears, the back of the headdress with a bound oryx, with four perforations at the top and two below the crown for attachment