I hope your personal "offering bearers" brought you everything you wanted for Christmas. But in case they didn't, why not treat yourself to a subscription to Nile Magazine?
This delightful Old Kingdom offering bearer carries a covered chest—a gift for the eternal delight of Hepikem, in whose tomb it was found.
Hepikem ("Hepi the Black") wielded influence during the reign of the 6th Dynasty's Pepi II, ca. 2200 B.C. He proudly bore the titles "Seal-bearer of the King of Lower Egypt", "Sole Companion" [of the king] and "Overseer of Priests". By placing this charming little wide-eyed servant girl in his tomb, Hepikem guaranteed an everlasting supply of fine offerings, as well as a willing servant to wait on him forever.
Hepikem's tomb (A4) was excavated at Meir in Middle Egypt during the early 1890s, and because the Giza museum already had a number of offering servants, this statue was subsequently offered for sale to a British military officer with a taste for antiquities, William Myers. Major Myers was killed in action in South Africa in 1899 and his collection of curios was bequeathed to his boyhood school, Eton College, making it one of the world's finest private collections of Egyptian art.
The current issue of Nile Magazine features an exhibition of treasures from the Eton Myers collection now being held at the University of Birmingham. "Objects Come To Life" is showing through to mid-2017.