LOT 0021

Egyptian Core-Formed Royal Krateriskos

NEW KINGDOM, 18TH DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY BC

3" (48 grams, 74mm).

A dark blue glass squat krateriskos vessel with bulbous body, pedestal foot, broad tubular neck with applied everted rim, two lateral loop handles to the shoulder, white and yellow marvered trails in swags to the body and similar zigzags to the neck.

Previously in the Gwain Mckinley collection, London, 1989; previously with Pierre Bergé & Associés, Archéologie, Paris, 16 December 2015, lot 49 (50,000-60,000 euros); formerly in an English private collection, 1970s; accompanied by copies of the relevant Pierre Bergé catalogue pages.

For a similar example in the Ernesto Wolf collection see no.5 in Stern E. M. and Schlick-Nolte, B. Early Glass in the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.- A.D.50. According to the authors, p.130-131, op. cit., several examples of the type were found at Malqata, Amenhotep III's palace at Thebes; Cooney comments, regarding a similar example in the Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum, IV, Glass, no.1738, that glass vessels of this period were likely made solely for the Royal Court; and see Nolte, B. Die Glasgefässe im alten Ägypten, Berlin, 1968; and cf. Kozloff, A. P. Aménophis III, le Pharaon-Soleil, catalogue d’exposition, Paris, 1993, pp. 332-333.

The characteristic krateriskos vessel was used for the storage of ointments, oils and cosmetics and may have been confined to the royal court, first during the reign of Amenhotep II. Handles were added later to the shape during the reign of Tuthmosis IV, and the popularity of this vessel shape continued through the reign of Amenhotep III and the early years of the reign of Amenhotep IV.