An Egyptian Polychrome Wood Inner Sarcophagus of Princess Sopdet-em-haawt, daughter of Peft-jauawy-bast, Libyan King of Nen-nesut (Herakleopolis Magna), Early 23rd Dynasty, late 8th Century B.C.

wearing a winged pectoral in the form of a kneeling figure of the winged sky goddess Nut, broad beaded collar, and voluminous tripartite wig of echeloned rectangular curls surmounted by a vulture headdress, her finely carved face with full lips rounded at the corners, wide-set almond-shaped eyes, and slender tapering eyebrows, the body and back-pillar dense with lines and columns of inscription, inverted Eyes of Horus on the feet, a kneeling winged goddess on the front of the pedestal, underneath the pedestal a galloping Apis bull carrying the mummy of the deceased, the central column of inscription in front translating: "The august Mistress of the House Sopdet-em-haawt, true of voice and holder of a pension, daughter of the Master of the Two Lands, Peft-jauawy-bastet, true of voice, her mother being Ir-bastet-wdja-nynefw, true of voice, daughter of of the Master of the Two Lands, Rudamun, true of voice."

probably from the Theban necropolis at Sheikh Abd-el Qurna
recorded at Qurna by Robert Hay (1799-1863) prior to 1834
probably English private collection, mid 19th Century
French private collection, Sète, acquired in the 1970s or earlier
by direct descent to the present owner

Erhart Graefe, "Eine Seite aus den Notizbüchern von Robert Hay," A. Eggebrecht and B. Schmitz, eds., Festschrift Jürgen von Beckerath. Zum 70. Geburtstag am 19. Februar 1990 (Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge, vol. 30), Hildesheim, 1990, pp. 85-90, pl. 8a
Jean-Marc Aubert, "On a retrouvé la fille du pharaon Pa-tatamon," Le Midi Libre, July 27th, 1992, région, p. 22, illus. 
Claus Jurman, "Die Namen des Rudjamun in der Kapelle des Osiris-Hekadjet. Bemerkungen der 3. Zwischenzeit un dem Wadi Gasus-Graffito," Göttinger Miszellen, vol. 210, 2006, 71 H
Karl Jansen-Winkeln, Inschriften der Spätzeit. Teil II. Die 22.-24. Dynastie, Wiesbaden, 2008,
Robert Morkot and Peter James, "Peftjauawybast, King of Nen-Nesut: Genealogy, Art History, and the Chronology of Late Libyan Egypt," Antiguo Oriente, vol. 7, 2009, p. 15
Raphaële Meffre, "Une princesse héracléopolitaine de l'époque libyenne: Sopdet(em)haaout," Revue d'égyptologie, 2009, pp. 215-221

Generally very good for an object of this type. There is retouching to the paint above and below the center of the proper right eye and on the center of the forehead and front and tip of the nose. There are small areas where the paint has flaked away, most of them visible in the photographs, and only a couple of them inpainted a long time ago along the seam on the wig and sides. Sides of pedestal have more losses than the rest of the case, and there is a small missing section on proper right side towards the back. Note that the back pillar has a large area of lost paint down to bare wood towards the bottom. Scene underneath is very damaged as seen in online view. There are numerous cracks in the painted linen surface, including on the wig and face, and knees. A larger crack runs across the cover above the ankles. The entire coffin is quite dirty, especially the upward-facing parts such as the crown of the head, shoulder and top of the feet. The pegged join between the two parts of the coffin leaves enough room in certain areas to see with a flashlight that the interior is covered with columns of inscription.
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Until now the present sarcophagus was only known through a drawing of the central column of inscription, under the title "Inscriptions on a Mummy-Case," preserved in the notebooks of pioneering Egyptologist Robert Hay (British Library, Add.MSS. 29827 f. 83v: Graefe, op. cit., pl. 8a). The sarcophagus whose inscription is recorded next on the notebook page is later attested in the collection of Giovanni d'Athanasi. Hay first visited Alexandria in 1818 as a midshipman in the Navy, returning to Egypt from 1824 to 1828, and lastly from 1829 to 1834. Part of his collection, primarily papyri and smaller objects, was sold in 1868 to the British Museum after his death; the remainder was sold to C. Granville Way whose son donated it the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1872 (W. R. Dawson and E. P. Uphill, Who Was Who in Egyptology, London, 1995, p. 194).

The name of the former occupant of this newly rediscovered sarcophagus is attested on two other monuments: only partially preserved on a wood sarcophagus fragment in Berlin (inv. no. ÄS 2100, from the Theban necropolis at Sheikh Abd-el Qurna), which belonged to one of her relatives (for all refs. see Meffre 2009, p. 215, note 7), and completely spelled out on a fragmentary block-statue in Moscow (O. Berlev and S. I. Hodjash, Sculpture of Ancient Egypt in the Collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, catalogue, Moscow, 2004 [in Russian], doc. 71, pp. 217-220).

For a related example cf. Sotheby's, New York, June 5th, 1999, no. 73.