Egyptian Alabaster Bowl with Thickened Rim. 3rd millennium B.C. Comprising a squat conical body with narrow foot, groove beneath the thickened rim. Cf. El-Khouli, A., Egyptian Stone Vessels: Predynastic Period to Dynasty III, vol.3, London, 1974, pl. 81, no. 2181, for a vessel of similar form. 177 grams, 82 mm (3 1/4 in.). (For this specific lot, 5% import VAT is applicable on the hammer price.)

Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

One of the most prestigious materials the Egyptians extracted was alabaster, more correctly referred to as travertine or calcite-alabaster. From the 1st through 3rd Dynasties, stone vessels were very popular items to include in the burials of pharaohs and nobles. No fewer than 30,000 stone vessels were found in the labyrinthine galleries below Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara, and Egyptian alabaster was used to make hundreds of those vessels.

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