371, Lot: 1124. Estimate $100. Sold for $60. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Late Period. 26th-30th Dynasty. 664-332 BC. Blue glazed faience amulet of a Djed pillar (21mm). A protective amulet placed with the deceased, Djed (Zad) pillars are the thought to represent the spine of Osiris. As a hieroglyph its is the symbol for stability or duration. Loop at top and bottom for attachment. Wonderfully preserved. Petrie 35.

From the Carl Devries Collection.

Raise yourself Osiris, to place yourself on your side, so that I may place water under you. I have brought you a djed-pillar of gold so that you may rejoice by it. Words spoken over a djed-pillar of gold strung on a fibre of sycamore and placed at the neck of the blessed dead on the day of burial. Anyone at whose neck this amulet is placed, will be an excellent spirit who is in the necropolis on the day of the First of the Year, like those who are in the following of Osiris.

Book of the Dead Chapter clv