PROBABLY REIGN OF AMENOPHIS III (CIRCA 1390-1352 B.C.)

Details

AN EGYPTIAN BLUE AND CREAM 'FAIENCE' HEDGEHOG FLASK
PROBABLY REIGN OF AMENOPHIS III (CIRCA 1390-1352 B.C.)
The details of its prickles in dark blue glaze with dark purple outline and aperture above, 2¾ in. (7 cm.) long; a black stone kohl-jar and lid, with carinated shoulder, on splayed foot, Dynasty XVIII, 15th-14th Century B.C., 2¼ in. (5.6 cm.) high; an Egyptian alabaster fish palette, 4¾ in. (12.2 cm.) long; a slate cosmetic 'seed-head' palette with suspension loop, 4 in. (10.1 cm.) long, both New Kingdom, circa 1550-1080 B.C. or earlier; and a wooden forepart of a gazelle attachment, New Kingdom, 1390-1186 B.C., 2¾ in. (7 cm.) long (5)

Provenance

Acquired in Egypt between 1956-1958.
Item one: from Tano, said to have come from Malqata, Thebes.
Sold to benefit The Hans Goedicke Foundation for Egyptology.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium Please note that the lots of Iranian origin are subject to U.S. trade restrictions which currently prohibit the import into the United States. Similar restrictions may apply in other countries.

Lot Essay

Item one: although there are no parallels for this flask in the early period, the hedgehog appeared in Egyptian Art from the Predynastic to the Late Period, with a flourish of hedgehog aryballoi appearing throughout the Eastern Mediterranean in the 6th Century B.C. For a similar treatment of the bristles on two 6th Century B.C. Greek black-glazed vessels, cf. J. Vercoutter et al., The Image of the Black in Western Art, Harvard, 1991, pp. 142-143, pls. 153-154. In the Late Period the hedgehog served as the divine emblem of the goddess Abast at the Bahria Oasis. However, in the Ebers Papyrus of early Dynasty XVIII hedgehog spines, ground up and mixed with fat or oil, were a cure for baldness. Cf. F. D. Friedmann (ed.), Gifts of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Faience, London, 1998, p. 220, no. 99, catalogue note on the symbolism of the hedgehog in ancient Egypt.

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