Small rough model of an Ibis, in Porcelain
There is a small blue-and-black porcelain ball also made and sold, but so soft is the material of which they are composed, that I failed to get one home in safety.
Nos. 10 and 13 are two pectorals, one with the Hathor cow represented on it; the smaller one, which is extremely well made, bears the cartouche of Thothmes III., and has fixed upon it, near the top, a piece of an ancient bead—a clever idea and one well calculated to take in the unwary.
Hathor
No. 11 is a blue lotus vase, made of soft material, and unevenly glazed.
No. 12. This small bottle can hardly be called a forgery, and is well described by Wilkinson, who says:
“Years ago some small bottles, having upon them Chinese inscriptions, were found in some tombs. These were held to establish a link between China and the ancient Egyptians. It is now known, however, that these bottles are of a comparatively recent period. M. Prisse discovered, by dint of questioning the Arabs of Cairo who were engaged in selling objects of antiquity, that the bottles were never found in tombs, and that the greater part of them came from Tous, Keft, and Kosseir, depôts of commerce with India on the Red Sea. The quality of these bottles is very inferior, and they appear to have been made before the manufacture of porcelain had attained the same degree of perfection in China as in after times. The interpretation of the inscriptions on some of these bottles has been given by Medhurst, and they are verses of poets who flourished in the seventh or eighth centuries A.D.”
PLATE XI.