<em>Polychrome Core-Formed Vase with Festooned Design</em>, ca. 1332–1213 B.C.E. Glass, 3 5/16 x diam. 2 5/16 in. (8.4 x 5.8 cm . Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 33.683. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.33.683_NegA_print_bw.jpg)

Polychrome Core-Formed Vase with Festooned Design, ca. 1332–1213 B.C.E. Glass, 3 5/16 x diam. 2 5/16 in. (8.4 x 5.8 cm . Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 33.683. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.33.683_NegA_print_bw.jpg)

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

This vase from the 18th dynasty doesn't seem to have a bottom to stand on. Was it used just for decoration?

Generally when a vase doesn't have a base like this, as you will see throughout the Egyptian galleries, it was made to stand up in sand or earth, with the lower portion partially buried.

Based on it's shape and size, and the fact that it is glass, this could also likely be a flask, meaning it would be carried rather than set down.

Tiny flask vessels could be used to carry any number of things, including perfumes and unguents.

Polychrome Core-Formed Vase with Festooned Design

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

Vessels

Ancient Egyptian artists produced vessels in both glass and faience, producing different effects with each material.

The Egyptians began manufacturing glass vessels during the Eighteenth Dynasty reign of Thutmose III (circa 1479–1425 B.C.E.). Early examples, valued for their rarity and beauty, were luxury items used to store precious oils and perfumes. Craftsmen produced striking effects by adding threads of colored glass to a vessel’s surface while it was still hot and then dragging a pointed object across the surface to produce festooned patterns. The artist who made the fish flask shown here indicated the animal’s scales by pressing blue powdered glass down into the interior.

Early scholars often incorrectly characterized faience as simply an inexpensive substitute for glass, but recent research suggests that the Egyptians favored the material because of its attractive color and its association with water, the source of creation. A characteristic type of Eighteenth Dynasty faience vessel is the shallow bowl. Early in the dynasty, artists painted the interiors of these bowls with marsh scenes including fish and water plants; later painters introduced human figures.

MEDIUM Glass

DATES ca. 1332–1213 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 18 to early Dynasty 19

PERIOD New Kingdom

DIMENSIONS 3 5/16 x diam. 2 5/16 in. (8.4 x 5.8 cm (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 33.683

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

PROVENANCE Archaeological provenance not yet documented; by 1933, acquired by Maurice Nahman of Cairo, Egypt; 1933, purchased from Maurice Nahman by Jean Capart for the Brooklyn Museum.

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EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

CAPTION Polychrome Core-Formed Vase with Festooned Design, ca. 1332–1213 B.C.E. Glass, 3 5/16 x diam. 2 5/16 in. (8.4 x 5.8 cm . Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 33.683. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.33.683_NegA_print_bw.jpg)

IMAGE overall, CUR.33.683_NegA_print_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2016

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

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Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

This vase from the 18th dynasty doesn't seem to have a bottom to stand on. Was it used just for decoration?

Generally when a vase doesn't have a base like this, as you will see throughout the Egyptian galleries, it was made to stand up in sand or earth, with the lower portion partially buried.

Based on it's shape and size, and the fact that it is glass, this could also likely be a flask, meaning it would be carried rather than set down.

Tiny flask vessels could be used to carry any number of things, including perfumes and unguents.