Egypt, Late Dynastic to Ptolemaic Period, ca. 664 to 30 BCE. A beautiful mold-formed faience offering cup covered with glaze of a vivid sky-blue hue. The cup has a flared foot, a tapered pedestal neck, and a wide, conical cup with a basin roughly half the depth of the body. The lightly-flared rim was meant to hold a form-fitting lid, and five faded hieroglyphic symbols are brought forth against the body with deep cobalt-blue pigment. Size: 1.7" W x 2.4" H (4.3 cm x 6.1 cm).
Faience was known as "tjehnet" to the ancient Egyptians, meaning brilliant or dazzling. It was made by grinding quartz or sand crystals together with various elements, including copper oxide, which gave it its distinctive blue-green tint. The Egyptians believed that blue faience reflected the color of the river Nile both on earth and in the afterlife, and funerary objects are often made from this material.
Provenance: ex-private Staten Island, New York, USA collection; ex-Christie's, New York Antiquities auction (sale 9796, December 5-6, 2001, lot 354); ex-Mariaud de Serres collection, Drouot, Paris, acquired in 1999
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#147316
Condition
Original lid missing. Small chips to rim and foot, with light abrasions, and fading to original coloration of glyphs and hieroglyphs. Light earthen deposits throughout.