169.—H.S. 383.
170.—Kahun Pot.
171.—L.D. II. 63.
Basket-work was elaborately developed in the Old Kingdom. There were beautiful screens represented behind the figures of the owners of the early tombs; they might in some cases be matting instead of basket-work, but others of the patterns appear certainly to be of a rigid material. In no case are they likely to be “mats on which the kings stand,” as styled by Owen Jones. Among the various patterns of platting which are readily developed, squares, waves, zig-zags, chequers, &c., there are some made by binding the fibres into bundles, and so making a kind of open work, which may well have led to the pattern of connected rhombs which is so usual on Oriental pottery.
172.—L.D. II. 63.
173.—L.D. II. 17.