Middle Kingdom, 11th-12th Dynasty, 2134-1802 BC. A carved wooden figure of a scribe sitting cross-legged, with an unrolled papyrus scroll across his lap, set on a rectangular base, the surface covered with gesso and painted; the hair cut short, the thighs covered by a turquoise-painted kilt; mounted on a custom-made stand. Cf. similar crouching servant figurine in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA, under accession number 22.20. 898 grams total, 27.5cm including stand (10 3/4"). Property of a Cambridgeshire gentleman; acquired from a Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman; from his collection formed in the 1990s.