Lot 13
Egypt, Late Dynastic Period, 26th to 31st Dynasty, ca. 664 to 332 BCE. A fabulous duo of faience New Year's flasks, each boasting a mold-made, lentoid body and a tubular, flared spout flanked by twin, arched handles, all sitting upon a pair of petite, nubbin feet. Enveloped in light, powder blue glaze, each vessel is adorned with relief decoration of a rosette on one side and a lotus flower or Thoth as a baboon on the other. An impressive pair; rife with Egyptian iconography and symbolism! Size (both about the same): 2.5" L x 1.6" W (6.4 cm x 4.1 cm)
These vessels are known as "New Year's Flasks" because the new year is usually invoked in the inscriptions. According to R. Bianchi in Gifts of the Nile, Ancient Egyptian Faience, New York, 1998, p. 229, nos. 126-127, "the ancient Egyptian New Year started in late summer, when the Nile began its annual flood. The transition between the years was considered fraught with dangers that threatened the cosmic stability of the land and numerous rituals were developed in order to ensure a harmonious transition. It has been suggested that these vessels were designed to contain a liquid used in an unknown ritual connected with New Year celebrations."
According to Egyptologists Erik Hornung and Betsy M. Bryan, "As primeval animals, baboons and green monkeys were prominent parts of the Egyptian cosmogony. The earliest gods are sometimes depicted with baboon heads. The baboon became an aspect of the sun god, Re . . . And of the moon god, Thoth-Khonsu. Thoth (Djehuty in ancient Egyptian) was the god of writing and knowledge, who was depicted in the form of two animals: the baboon (Papio cynocephalus) and the sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus). In his baboon form Thoth was closely associated with the baboon god, Hedj-wer (the great white one) of the Early Dynastic period. By the end of the Old Kingdom (2686 - 2181 BCE) he was usually portrayed as an ibis-headed man, holding a scribal palette and pen or a notched palm leaf, performing some kind of act of recording or calculation." (Hornung, Erik and Betsy M. Bryan, eds. "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt." National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002, p. 200)
Provenance: ex-private London, UK collection, 1970s; ex-T.F. Holy Lands collection, formed since the 1960s
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#193199
- Condition: Weathering to surface with chipping, nicks, and abrasions commensurate with age, as shown. Otherwise, both are intact with encrustations in areas and liberal remaining detail.
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