This fragmentary cup, in the form of a partially open blue lotus flower, belongs to a group of glass vessels that belonged to three foreign wives of Thutmose III, the nephew and co-ruler of Hatshepsut. At this time, the art of glass manufacture was relatively new to Egypt, but the shape of the cup is typically Egyptian, suggesting that it was made in Egypt and not imported like another glass vessel from the same group (26.7.1175). The outer surface is engraved with a pattern of lotus petals, one of which is inscribed with the words "The Good God, Menkheperre, given life."
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This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Left: 26.8.34a, b; Center: 23.9; Right: 26.7.1175
Artwork Details
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Title:Lotiform chalice
Period:New Kingdom
Dynasty:Dynasty 18
Reign:reign of Thutmose III
Date:ca. 1479–1425 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Wadi Gabbanat el-Qurud, Wadi D, Tomb of the Three Foreign Wives of Thutmose III
Medium:Glass, gold
Dimensions:H. 7.5 cm (2 15/16 in.); diam. 8.6 cm (3 3/8 in.)
Credit Line:Bequest of the Earl of Carnarvon, 1923
Object Number:23.9
Bequeathed to the Museum by Lord Carnarvon, 1923.
Scott, Nora E. 1944. Home Life of the Ancient Egyptians: A Picture Book. New York: Plantin Press, fig. 17.
Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 141, fig. 77.
Tait, G. A. D. 1963. "The Egyptian Relief Chalice." In Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 49, p. 100.
Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L.B. Moss 1964. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings: The Theban Necropolis. Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries, vol. I part 2a. Oxford, 592.
Schlick-Nolte, Birgit 1968. Die Glasgefäße im alten Ägypten, Münchner ägyptologische Studien, 14. Berlin: B. Hessling, p. 48, pl. 1, 7, no. 14.
Scott, Nora E. 1973. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 31, no. 3 (Spring), New York, pp. 150–51, fig. 25.
Grose, David F. 1989. Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50. New York: Hudson Hills Press.
Lilyquist, Christine 1993. Studies in Early Egyptian Glass. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 34, no. 11
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2001. Ars Vitraria: Glass in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 59, no. 1 (Summer), New York, p.12 (Christine Lilyquist).
Lilyquist, Christine 2003. The Tomb of Three Foreign Wives of Tuthmosis III. 2003. New York, p. 151, no. 103; p. 219, figs. 144–45; p. 288.
2005. Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, No. 31, p.68.
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The Met's collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 26,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from the Paleolithic to the Roman period.
