Egyptian Cedar & Painted Gesso Canopic Box w/ Ba Bird

Egypt, Third Intermediate to Late Dynastic Period, 25th to 26th Dynasty, ca. 744 to 525 BCE. A beautiful canopic box of a rare form, hand-carved from cedar wood, with four body panels connected via several original wooden dowels and resting atop a rectangular base, and with a lid with recessed corners that fits around the four corner columns. The body, base, and lid are covered in thin layers of white gesso and painted with polychrome hues of green, blue, white, and red. The box features five figures standing in mummiform that surround columns of black-painted hieroglyphic inscriptions, and bars of enclosed stripes adorn the peripheral areas. Surmounting the lid is a vibrant polychrome Ba bird with a lengthy tail, a squat body, and a gilt wood sun disk; this bird is meant to represent Ra-Horakhty. While the original contents are unknown, this box was perhaps used as an animal coffin to contain the mummified remains of a petite creature. Size: 9.625" L x 8.5" W x 12" H (24.4 cm x 21.6 cm x 30.5 cm).

Interestingly, cedar wood was not native to Egypt. Egypt did not have verdant forests filled with tall trees, and unfortunately most of its native lumber was of relatively poor quality. Thus, they relied on importing to acquire hardwoods - ebony imported from Africa, cedar and pine from Lebanon. One fabulous obelisk inscription by Thutmose III attests to the luxury of treasured hardwoods. It reads as follows, "They brought to me the choicest products...consisting of cedar, juniper and of meru wood...all the good sweet woods of God's Land." The rarity of cedar meant that masks like this example were reserved for those who could afford them.

For a stylistically similar example of a canopic box, with vibrant decorations and a lid surmounted by a zoomorphic representation of Anubis, please see: Hornung, Erik and Betsy Morrell Bryan, eds. "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt." National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002, p. 163, fig. 75.

Provenance: private J.H. collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA

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#149655
Condition Report: Chips and losses to base, walls, lid, Ba bird, some dowels, and gesso layers as shown. Fading to original pigment, with minor darkening to gilding on Ba bird, staining to original pigmentation, and loosening to walls and joint areas. Great earthen deposits and wonderful traces of original pigment throughout.