MIDDLE KINGDOM TO SECOND INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, 13TH-17TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1650-1550 B.C.

Anhydrite kohl jars featuring two or more monkeys with outstretched arms and legs carved in raised relief belong to a small category of luxury items. As C. Roehrig notes (p. 20 in Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh), “Fewer than three dozen have been published, and hardly any of these come from well-documented archaeological contexts. Dated to the Middle Kingdom until the 1980s, the animal vases are now assigned a date range of the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Dynasty (1802-1550 B.C.), but this distinctive group of luxury vessels is so small and so homogeneous that they were probably all made in one location during a very brief time period.” An extensive study by B. Fay dedicated to monkey vases and larger duck flasks and other types in anhydrite reveals close parallels to the present example (see “Egyptian Duck Flasks of Blue Anhydrite,” Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 33, fig. 11). For other examples, see the ones in Bristol and in the Fitzwilliam Museum, p. 142 in J. Bourriau, Pharaohs and Mortals: Egyptian Art in the Middle Kingdom.