Cleveland Museum of Art

Fragment of an Inlay Headdress

Date: c. 1353–1295 BCE
Medium: lavender blue faience with deep blue overglaze
Culture: Egypt, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18
Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 101363

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This fragment is part of the curled headdress of an inlay figure, probably of a queen, assembled of various materials fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The front part of the headdress (directly over the forehead) is to the left, followed by the ear tab and part of the cutout above the ear. The luster of the faience is marvelously preserved. Blue, primarily associated with lapis lazuli, was an appropriate color for kings' and gods' hair and was part of the apparatus signaling them as otherworldly beings. It has been suggested that this fragment was part of a headdress that belonged to a queen. The fine, carved details of this headdress attest to the great skill of its maker and the luster of the blue lapis lazuli faience would have been appropriate for Egyptian royalty.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
Provenance: Said to come from el-Amarna. Purchased from P. Kytikas, Cairo, through Howard Carter

Part of a LinkedCulture topic

Ancient Egyptian Glass Inlays
These objects are decorative glass and faience inlays from ancient Egypt, primarily from the Ptolemaic Dynasty and Roman Period, used for ornamentation in jewelry, architecture, and other decorative applications.
12 objects from 3 institutions