This anonymous royal head bears a resemblance to a statuette found in the valley temple of Menkaure/Mycerinus at Giza. It could be a representation of king Shepseskaf, who completed the funerary complex of his predecessor. The king wears a type of horizontally folded hairband which extends down to the top of the eyebrows, and on top of it is an uraeus. The face is very delicately modelled, with round eyes, a forced smile, and a strong chin.
R. Tefnin, Sculptuur van het Oude Egypte - Statues et statuettes de l'Ancienne Égypte, Bruxelles 1988, 20-21
J.-Ch. Balty, e.a., Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis, Brussel, Oudheid - Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Bruxelles, Antiquité - The Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, Antiquity, Bruxelles 1988, 16
F. Lefebvre et B. Van Rinsveld, L'Égypte. Des Pharaons aux Coptes, Bruxelles 1990, 36
Th. De Putter et Chr. Karlshausen, Les pierres, Bruxelles 1992, 65
K. Finneiser, Beobachtungen zu einem Königskopf des Alten Reiches, GM 163 (1998) 56 n. 15