Bottle with Openwork Shell
Description
Object Label: Egyptian blue is a copper-calcium tetrasilicate that the ancient Egyptians pulverized, mixed into a paste, and used to fashion objects fired at a low temperature. Seldom were those objects as large as this vessel, a technical masterpiece made of several parts. The rim and the base are shaped like lotus flowers, symbols of birth and rebirth, and the shell is adorned with images of deities in a setting represented by architectural columns. Caption: Bottle with Openwork Shell, ca. 1075–712 B.C.E.. Egyptian blue, 6 11/16 x greatest diam. 2 15/16 in. (17 x 7.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 44.175. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A decorative blue faience vessel with intricate carvings and openwork design.
The artifact is a small blue faience vessel characterized by an intricately carved openwork design. The composition includes detailed scenes possibly representing aquatic life, with notable craftsmanship in the depiction of animals and structural elements. The use of faience suggests a vibrant aesthetic common in funerary and decorative pieces during the New Kingdom and later periods.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 44.175 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3480 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.