- Provenance
- Provenance research underway.
- Description
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Lentoid flask, Sand core vessel with dragged thread decoration. Broken and repaired.
- Label
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Vessels such as this one are the masterpieces of Freer's Egyptian purchases. Of superb quality and beautifully preserved, they remain the world's premier collection of Egyptian glass vessels produced during Dynasty 18 (1550-1307 B.C.E.). The rich blues and blue-greens and the lustrous surfaces that appealed to Freer were also prized by ancient artisans, who sought to imitate in glass the colors and appearance of favored gemstones, especially turquoise and lapis lazuli. The vessels were made by winding threads of molten glass around a core of sand, clay, and mud.
These small vessels were fashioned as containers for costly perfumed ointments, scented oils, and cosmetics. Comparison with vessels and fragments excavated from royal glass workshops suggests that many of the Freer examples were made during the reigns of the pharaohs Amenhotep III (1391-1353 B.C.E.) and Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten (1353-1335 B.C.E.). They may likewise be the products of royal workshops.
- Published References
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- John D. Cooney. Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum. 7 vols., London, 1968-1987. vol. 4.
- Richard Ettinghausen. Ancient Glass in the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington, 1962. p. 10, fig. 7.
- Ann C. Gunter. A Collector's Journey: Charles Lang Freer and Egypt. Washington and London, 2002. p. 20, fig. 1.4.
- Thomas Lawton, Linda Merrill. Freer: a legacy of art. Washington and New York, 1993. p. 84, fig. 57.
- Birgit Schlick-Nolte. Die Glasgefasse im alten Agypten. Munchner agyptologische Studien, 14 Berlin. p. 133, pl. 27, fig. 41.
- Susan H. Auth. Ancient Egyptian Glass from the Dattari Collection. vol. 118, no. 258 London, August 1983. pp. 160-163, fig. 1.
- Collection Area(s)
- Ancient Egyptian Art
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
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Usage Conditions Apply
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CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
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