Antiquities

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Antiquities

 

Mosaic, tragic mask of a queen, possibly Queen Dido of Carthage

Roman, circa 1st-2nd century A.D. in an 18th century mount
11.5 x 9 inches {mosaic dimensions}
 
Provenance: Hon. James Smith Barry {1816-1856}, Marbury Hall
by descent
 
Published: Catalogue of the Art Treasures at Manchester, 1857, item 23a

 

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Large Roman glass perfume vessel

 

Eastern Empire. 1st - 2nd cent. AD

7 3/4 inches high/19.8 cms
intact
Still containing traces of its original perfume
 

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Byzantine perfume flasks

 

Eastern Mediterranean, 9 - 12th cent. AD showing Islamic influence

4 inches high/10 cms

Consisting of two glass perfume flasks w/ aplicator. One flask has its original seal and contains perfume.

All are contained in a textile pouch which also shows Islamic influence

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Ptolemaic Figure of Horus

Ptolemaic Statue of Horus

granite

18 x 13 8.5 inches

William Tilden Blodgett, 1823 - 1875, acquired whilst living in Europe and traveling to Egypt where he also spent time acquiring art for The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  He was a founding member and the first Chairman of the Museum.

The Horus Falcon passed down through the Blodgett family to the great grandson, Stephen Whitney Blodgett, Jr  

 

Antiquities

 

Relief plaque/trial piece showing a Queen or the Goddess Isis wearing a Vulture headress

Ptolemaic Period circa 305 - 30 B.C.

limestone

5 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches {irregular}

Provenance: Early British collection

See another similar relief with the more fleshy treatment of the nose and mouth, Bas relief portrait of Cleopatra in The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

The vulture headress became an attribute of royal women in the Old Kingdom, originally linking the queen with Nekhbet, the tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt, although it came to be associated with other goddesses. When worn by royal women, the headress was likely intended to underscore the divinity of the queenship. Though princesses holding religious office and noblewomen were portrayed in the vulture cap during the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, its use was again limited to queens and goddesses in the Ptolemaic era.

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