LATE PERIOD TO EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 6TH-4TH CENTURY B.C.

For a related example in wood, New Kingdom in date, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, see no. 250 in Brovarski, et al., Egypt's Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom. According to Peck and Freed (p. 211 in Brovarski, et al., op. cit.), "Mussel shells were used as early as predynastic times as containers for eye paint... Hand-held shell spoons begin in the Middle Kingdom in an elongated form, such as an example in Berlin, which provides one of the few instances of an inscription on this type of object. The phrase, 'It is to the beloved of Horus and the beloved of the city god that I have given incense,' implies that this was a ritual spoon. On the other hand, a New Kingdom frit spoon of larger size in the Metropolitan Museum contains traces of red paint of the type used by artists and scribes." The inscription on the Jéquier spoon clearly indicates that it was for use by the scribe Djed-Hapy-i(w)ef-ankh, who was associated with the priesthood.