Details

LOT 0010

Egyptian Ovoid Alabaster Jar

EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3100-2900 B.C.

4 1/2 in. (517 grams, 11.5 cm high).

With rounded lip, and oval body slightly tapering to a flat base.

Provenance

Mary Stout Shaw (1880-1962); thence by direct descent to the present owner.

Accompanied by a copy of a 1976 family photo featuring some of the collection on display.

Literature

Cf. Guidotti, M.C., Vasi dall’epoca protodinastica al Nuovo Regno, Museo Egizio di Firenze, Rome, 1991, p.92, no.48, for a similar vessel.

Footnotes

Mary Kilgour Stone was born in 1880 in Cincinnati, Ohio. On 25 November 1903, she married Percy Wyfold Stout from Gloucester (DSO, OBE, 1875-1937), who had moved to Cairo after an international rugby career.

After fighting in the First World War, Percy became the Director of the Egyptian Delta Land Company and the Anglo-American Nile Tourist Company. He and Mary were friends with the famous Major Gayer-Anderson, who worked as a doctor on the company’s cruise boats between 1930 and 1939. Gayer-Anderson tells in his memoir how this allowed him to make frequent trips to Upper Egypt and fulfil his passion for collecting (and dealing in) ancient Egyptian art.

In his company, Mary became an enthusiast about all things Egypt and formed an elegant collection of ancient Egyptian alabaster vessels,
including the following lots. She was particularly fascinated with the ancient cat goddess Bastet. Therefore, when Gayer-Anderson decided
to give his famous ancient bronze cat to the British Museum in 1939, he made sure the donation was in both his name and Mary Stout Shaw’s, as a tribute to their friendship.