Volume II Part 31 (2/2)
[Illustration: FIG 291--Pitcher of red earth British Museum]
[Illustration: FIG 292--Red earthenware British Museuyptian porcelain_, nation is inexact The proper naently fused, and overspread with a glaze of coloured enamel This enamel is co matter
This faience has been fired with such care that it is able to support the high tee Vases of294), sepulchral _figurines_ (Figs 96 and 97, Vol I), neck orna the person, as, and many other articles were enerally either blue or apple green A very sures of men or animals, always treated in a purely decorative fashi+on No vase has yet been discovered with any atteures are never united by a subject Bouquets of lotus around so 296) Sometimes these flowers are co 297 These designs, which are in black, are produced by inlaying coloured enamel
[Illustration: FIG 293--Gray earthenware Boulak]
[Illustration: FIG 294--The God Bes Enamelled earthenware]
Two of the vases which we reproduce (Figs 296 and 297) are similar to those shown in the bas-reliefs, in scenes of libation to the Gods or to the dead Their form is that of the Greek f???? and the Latin _patera_ Nueneral shape exactly rese 298)
The blue hich these objects are covered has often preserved a brilliance and transparency which could not even now be surpassed
Yellow, violet, and white glazes are also lyphs which many of them bear prove that theunder the three great Theban dynasties, that it continued through the Saite period, and that under the Ptolemies, and even later still, it was not extinct To the sa those tiles of enayptians from very early times They were also used by the assyrians, as we shall see hereafter ”These tiles were used very extensively in eastern and southern countries, and are found both in palaces and in private dwellings In the towns of Turkey and of Modern Egypt, in the towns and villages of Algeria and of all the African coast as far as the Straits of Gibraltar, thousands of examples are to be found The freshness which see brilliancy of their colours make these tiles very popular with the inhabitants of hot climates”[367]
[367] BRONGNIART, _Histoire de la Ceramique_, vol ii p 95
[Illustration: FIG 295--Pendant for necklace Louvre]
[Illustration: FIG 296--Enamelled earthenware British Museum]
[Illustration: FIG 297--Enamelled earthenware British Museum]
[Illustration: FIG 298--Enamelled faience British Museum]
[Illustration: FIG 299--Doorway in the Stepped Pyramid at Sakkarah]
We do not knohether these tiles were used for the floors and walls in the dwellings of rich Egyptians or not, but it appears certain that their manufacture was understood even as early as the Ancient Empire
The doorway of a chamber in the stepped pyramid of Sakkarah is enfra's, which we reproduce, gives a good idea of this arrange 299)[368] Soer number are in the Berlin Museu parts being replaced by copies Our Figures 300-302 show the back, the front, and the profile, of a single plaque The obverse is slightly convex, and covered with a greenish-blue glaze; the reverse has a salient tenon which was held securely by the h a small hole in this tenon a rod of wood orall the plaques in each horizontal roould give additional solidity to the whole arrangement[369] On the backs of several plaques there are ured in the centre of Perring's sketch Other bricks from the same doorway are covered with an als between the rows of upright bricks, and are decorated with a sort of arrow-head pattern
[368] See also LEPSIUS, _Denkyptischen Alterthumer_ of the Berlin Museuive these curious details to the kindness of M Conze and the officers of the Egyptian ht home by Lepsius was lent to us
[Illustration: FIGS 300-302--Enamelled plaque frohout the Theban period The most important relic of it whichpossess is from the decoration of a temple built by Rameses III to the north-west of Memphis, near the modern Tell-el-Yahoudeh, upon the railway fro itself was constructed of crude brick, the walls being lined with enamelled tiles The royal ovals and titles were cut in the earth before it was fired, and afterwards filled up with an ena relief from the colour of the brick Other tiles represent African and Asiatic prisoners The figures are in relief; the ena black, their carnations yellowish-brown, and certain details of their costu accentuated by other hues Dr Birch reproduces sourines rustiques_ of Bernard Palissy[370] The principal fragments of this decoration are in the store-rooms of the Boulak Museum They deserve more publicity than they have received Most of thens of which an idea ained from three pieces of faience which are now in the British Museuraceful rosettes, while the third is covered with a pattern reses 303-305)[371]
[370] BIRCH, _Ancient Pottery_, p 50
[371] I am told that a circular base, like that of a colus, was discovered in the sa It is entirely covered with this same faience
[Illustration: FIGS 303-305--Enamelled earthenware plaques in the British Museum]