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Lot Essay
Finely sculpted from an orange-red stone, this inlay depicts a king or deity in left profile. He is shown with delicate features including outlined lips, a slightly aquiline nose, a naturalistically-rendered ear with a dimpled earlobe perforated at the center, and a graceful, elongated eye with an extended cosmetic line below an arching brow.
A related inlay in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has been tentatively identified as representing King Sety I (r. 1294-1279 B.C., see fig. 93 in W.S. Smith, Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Inlays in either semi-precious stone or glass, such as the present example, served as ornaments for “shrines and funerary equipment as well as luxurious furniture for the living” (see p. 110 in E. Riefsthal, Ancient Glass and Glazes in the Brooklyn Museum). Tutankhamun’s throne, for instance, was extensively adorned with inlays depicting the pharaoh and his queen, thus demonstrating the popularity of such ornamentation during the late New Kingdom.
For other examples, see no. 61 in S. Spurr, et al., Egyptian Art at Eton College: Selections from the Myers Museum and one formerly in the collection of Howard Carter, pp. 78-79 in Ancient Egypt: Masterpieces from Collectors and Collections.
A related inlay in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has been tentatively identified as representing King Sety I (r. 1294-1279 B.C., see fig. 93 in W.S. Smith, Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Inlays in either semi-precious stone or glass, such as the present example, served as ornaments for “shrines and funerary equipment as well as luxurious furniture for the living” (see p. 110 in E. Riefsthal, Ancient Glass and Glazes in the Brooklyn Museum). Tutankhamun’s throne, for instance, was extensively adorned with inlays depicting the pharaoh and his queen, thus demonstrating the popularity of such ornamentation during the late New Kingdom.
For other examples, see no. 61 in S. Spurr, et al., Egyptian Art at Eton College: Selections from the Myers Museum and one formerly in the collection of Howard Carter, pp. 78-79 in Ancient Egypt: Masterpieces from Collectors and Collections.