About the lot N° 1
Title : Egyptian Green Graywacke Fish Palette, Period : 3300.0
Size : 4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm.) longProvenance : with Superior Galleries, Los Angeles, 1975.Literature : G.D. Scott, III, Exhibition catalogue, Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Trust Collection, San Bernardino, 1992, no. 5, p. 20.Notes : For over twenty years I started each day with a cup of coffee sitting quietly with Nefertari. It set a tone that prepared me for whatever the challenge that the practice of obstetrics and gynecology might bring. Now I have retired and realize that her hope for immortality vastly exceeds my own. Thus I have decided to part with her and a few of the masterpieces from our collection.My first purchase was a scarab necklace for my wife in 1955. Little did we realize that twenty years later we would become serious collectors steadily and quietly acquiring Egyptian antiquities for three decades.We began collecting actively in 1973 and purchased thirty items---mostly under $300 and mostly fake! I paused and devoted myself to study and building a library with the result that I made only one purchase in the following year. In the course of such study, I benefited from warm friendships with numerous professional Egyptologists world wide who shared their knowledge freely.In 1975 I was able to document the path to the market of artifacts sold by Emil Brugsch, then director of the Boulaq Museum in Cairo, to Philadelphia collector/philanthropist Colonel Anthony Drexel in 1895. I also tracked numerous Cairo purchases by Miss Lily Place which were later gifted to the Minneapolis Institute of Art during the 1920s. She also gave many pieces to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Over the next several years I acquired about 200 pieces from their purchases.Most collectors can relate to my learning curve and the angst that comes with increasingly expensive purchases. It was a bit daunting to know I set a new world record for the purchase of a New Kingdom artifact when I bought the Standard-Bearing Statue of Queen Nefertari at Christie's in 1979. I spent ten times more than I had ever paid for any previous antiquity, but I believed it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. This was later confirmed when Madame Desroches-Noblecourt, curator at the Louvre, told me the museum was the under bidder. Yet I have never had a moment of regret, but am a bit envious of whoever wins her at this sale.In 1991 the collapse of an agreement to host an exhibit for California State University San Bernardino with its sister University of Zagazig created a mini crisis. There had been much local publicity and enthusiasm. We were prevailed upon to fill in. For the prior seven years we had anonymously loaned a major portion of the Egyptian antiquities displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We also anonymously loaned to the Smithsonian and many others. The time had arrived to come out of the closet and so we enlisted Dr. Gerry Scott to produce a catalogue of items displayed at the University Art Gallery, California State University, San Bernardino and the San Bernardino County Museum. The exhibition was entitled Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Trust Collection.It seems paradoxical that we should part with masterpieces epitomizing the apex of ancient Egyptian craftsmanship while retaining lesser pieces. We have always purchased objects that were comfortable to live with. As investments I would go for beauty, rarity and highest quality craftsmanship. However, a student of ancient Egyptian civilization can equally appreciate mundane objects. Some reflect folk art of the age, while others are mass produced utilitarian wares. Even fragments may provide meaningful insight to life under the pharaohs and to enduring and universal aspects of human behavior.The latter groups fulfill our goals for the university museum to educate children in the community. Some are retained for my ongoing professional interest in OB-GYN practices.Since the Temple, Tomb and Dwelling exhibition, we have loaned to numerous major shows in dozens of museums all over the world. We have worked to develop a permanent collection for CSUSB. The Getty Museum borrowed Nefertari and several others for the only Egyptian show they have ever held.The sale of these few master works will finance expansion of the CSUSB permanent collection as well as fulfill various personal and family goals. We have been temporary custodians. We hope they will continue to provide much pleasure and intellectual stimulation in their new homes as they had in ours.Dr. Benson HarerOctober 2005W. Benson Harer has had a distinguished career in both his profession of obstetrics and gynecology and his avocation of Egyptology. He was the first non-professional to become a Governor of the American Research Center in Egypt in 1981 and has continued in that role, also serving eight years on the Executive Committee. He was appointed Adjunct Professor (Egyptology) in the Department of Humanities at California State University San Bernardino in 1990. In 2001 he was honored as the first recipient of an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, as CSUSB completed the 35th year of its existence. Dr. Harer is recognized internationally as an authority on Ancient Egyptian medicine with numerous articles and lectures. He is credited with bringing pharmacological aspects of the Egyptian lotus to the attention of the profession and wrote the entry for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Egyptology.Dr. Harer has worked extensively in Egypt. He served as a volunteer with Dr. Kent Weeks' Theban Mapping Project in three of its first four seasons. Subsequently he volunteered with the Brooklyn Museum expedition to the Precinct of Mut in West Karnak. Secretly he hoped to uncover the base for the statue of the Standard-Bearing Queen to prove conclusively she is Nefertari.In the course of the next year the British Museum Press will publish a book on the modern re-autopsy of the first scientific autopsy of a mummy performed by Dr. A.B. Granville in 1821. Dr. Harer will join Dr. John Taylor as co-editor. This mummy contained the oldest known ovarian tumor. Dr. Granville was a pioneer obstetrician in his time, whom Dr. Harer has emulated in combining profession with passion.Dr. Harer is equally well recognized in his profession of obstetrics and gynecology. He has held numerous positions in local, state and national organizations culminating as President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2000. He has published numerous peer review articles and lectured extensively in America and abroad. He has held clinical professorial appointments at UCLA and Western University of Health Sciences.Pamela Harer, JD, has shared her husband's passion for Egyptology to a great extent and has surpassed it in her great passion for early children's books, a field in which she is an authority. She raised their four children, went to Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles, practiced insurance defense law for twenty years, retired and completed a certificate course in appraising at University of California, Irvine. Mrs. Harer has been to Egypt only five times beginning in 1973 with a Swans tour of the length of the Nile from Aswan to Cairo, some 600 miles.Objects from the Harer Family Trust Collection have been exhibited at the following institutions:Museum of Fine Arts, BostonBrooklyn MuseumArt Institute of ChicagoCincinnati Art MuseumCleveland Museum of ArtMcKissick Museum of the University of South Carolina, ColumbiaDenver Museum of Natural HistoryDetroit Institute of ArtsKimbell Art Museum, Fort WorthMuseum of Science and History, JacksonvilleRijksmuseum van Oudheden, LeidenLos Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles County Museum of Natural HistoryJ. Paul Getty Museum, MalibuMiami Museum of Science and PlanetariumMilwaukee Public MuseumStaatliche Sammlung Ägyptische Kunst, MunichPeabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New HavenMuseum of Art, Carnegie Institute, PittsburghMuseum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, ProvidenceMuseum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FloridaSan Antonio Museum of ArtUniversity Art Gallery, California State University, San BernardinoRobert V. Fullerton Art Museum, San BernardinoSan Bernardino County MuseumSan Diego Museum of ManUniversity of Arizona Museum of Art, TucsonPalazzo Grassi, VeniceNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.South Florida Science Museum, West Palm BeachPalettes in the form of fish, likely the bolti (Tilapia nilotica), became popular during the second phase of the Naqada period. Such palettes were used for grinding, mainly for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. Since they are found in both funerary and religious contexts, they likely had a ceremonial as well as utilitarian function.Christie's, auctioneer, New York, US
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Sale title : Ancient Egyptian Art from the Harer Family Trust Collection
Sale date : 09 Dec 2005
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Sale Reference : Live Sale
