Late Period Egyptian Bronze Falcon
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GUEST:
I inherited this from an uncle of mine, and I guess I was one of his favorite nephews and he was one of my favorite uncles. And he had this bird, and I looked at him all my life when I stayed there and I was fascinated by him. I loved him, and I still do. And when he passed away, he left it to me.
APPRAISER:
That's great. Well, this is a very special piece. Obviously, you know already that it's Egyptian, and it dates to what we call the Late Period, so that means it dates between 664 B.C. and 304 B.C. And it's not just an image of a bird. It was sacred to the god Horus, and as such, it was hollow cast, and it originally contained a falcon mummy. And if you look where the tail has broken off, you'll see that there's remnants of the mummy inside. You can also see when you flip this over that it's hollow, and that the falcon mummy would have been fit up into here. There's also the remnants of a hieroglyphic inscription on the base which would have named the dedicant-- the person who gave this piece. It's beautifully cast. You have great details of the feathers here and the eye markings for the falcon. It's absolutely exquisite. Now, how did it get broken?
GUEST:
Well, unfortunately, two of my sons apparently got the idea of playing with it back in 1962 or so. And it lasted all that time, and somehow or another, it fell off the shelf, and each of them went like that.
APPRAISER:
"Not me."
GUEST:
Yeah, "Not me, it's got to be the other one."
APPRAISER:
Maybe they thought it was the Maltese falcon and were trying to find treasure inside.
GUEST:
They probably did.
APPRAISER:
Any idea what it's worth?
GUEST:
Oh, none whatsoever, no, none whatsoever.
APPRAISER:
Well, if this were coming up at an auction I would have estimated it at about $12,000 to $18,000, and I would probably expect that it would sell for more.
GUEST:
Really? Wow, that's unbelievable.
APPRAISER:
It's really a special object.
GUEST:
Oh, that's super. Well, I really appreciate that. What would it have been worth if it wasn't broken?
APPRAISER:
It won't affect the value at all.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
No, because it's a clean break.
Appraisal Details
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