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Simply a snapshot.........

Fake Ushabtis on eBay 1st March 2006

 

First these whose images appear extremely dark:

 







The images as on eBay

 

And here they are after saving them to my pc and then making them lighter.

 







THEY LOOK BETTER IN THE DARK!

 

And then some shabti amulets. Which are very rare.......if they exist at all!  The examples you will find on eBay (often!) are defintely tourist trinkets.

 





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From Tim (A specialist shabti collector)

 

I don't believe that shabtis ever had pierced necks or heads. 

 

There are artefacts from the New Kingdom period which are mummiform in shape and are pierced either longitudinally (one example in my possession, not seen similar elsewhere but John Taylor okayed it) or both longitudinally and horizontally (several examples) and are no more than about an inch long.  The horizontal piercing is at about waist level and not through the neck.  I believe the latter at least are from the Amarma period, and I don't think they are shabtis / ushabtis at all in the strict sense but most likely beads from a collar where many of these were strung together, probably to look something like a usekh collar.  I have an idea I might once have seen a picture of such a collar, but I can't remember where or when.

 

There have been suggestions made that some authentic shabtis may have been drilled in latter times but this is patent nonsense.  Faience would shatter if you tried to drill it and the appearance of the holes would be quite different to how they would look if they had been made before firing.  As I'm sure you know, 'suspension holes' in faience weren't drilled at all but made by putting a small stick through the object before firing which burned away in the kiln.

 

More about fake shabti pendants here>>

  

On the same day on eBay...... assorted fantasies and forgeries.

 

 











 

An last but not least, this pair, advertised as of Tutankhamun! The pic on the left is how it is on ebay; the one on the right, after lightening it.

 

 

 




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The 419 ushabtis found in Tutankhamun's tomb are especially wonderful.

 





 

Can all these different sellers  be selling fakes??

Surely not!  (?)

Where do they find them????

 

Here..................

 

 








 

Yes, they come mostly from Egypt.

Manufactured in the last year or so.

 

Continue on the fake ushabtis pages.