egyptian furniture
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EGYPTIAN FURNITURE
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Many Pre-dynastic burials in the Nile valley have the body placed on
wooden poles and covered with a matting made of plant fibre while
some burials are found in primitive wooden boxes.
By the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt we find bed frames were in
common use with many examples being found in 1st dynasty (3100-
2890 BC) tombs.
The quality of these bed frames ranged from conveniently shaped
branches that were lashed together, to sophisticated examples made
from rounded poles that were jointed together and supported on finely
carved bovine shaped legs.
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Of all the beds found, this one is the finest and most elaborate with a
carved ebony frame covered in gold sheet. It has a string-mesh mattress
and its footboard is divided into three panels.
The central panel is decorated in relief with the "sema-tawy" symbol of
unification; the other two panels show plant designs.
Noting the scratch marks on the gold, the excavator concluded that this
bed was actually used by the king during his lifetime.
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The Egyptian bed was a rectangular woodenframe with a mat of woven cords.
Instead of using pillows, the Egyptians used acrescent-shaped headrest at one end of thebed. Beds were made of a woven mat placedon wooden framework standing on animal-shaped legs.
At one end was a footboard and at the otherwas a headrest made a curved neckpiece seton top of a short pillar on an oblong base
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Headrests were used in
ancient Egypt and arestill used in some
African regions to
protect the head of the
sleeper and ease thecirculation of air around
the head in the hot
summer nights.
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At the beginning of the Old Kingdom, which opens with the 3rd dynasty
(2686-2613BC), there were major advances in building and the
associated trade of carpentry.
The quality of royal furniture made during this period can be seen in
those examples discovered by the American Egyptologist George
Reisner, in the 4th dynasty tomb of Queen Hetepheres (c 2600 BC) at
Giza.
When he opened the tomb, he found that the wooden elements fromwhich the furniture had been made had rotted away to powder.
However, it proved possible to reconstruct much of the Queen's furniture
by studying the positions of the gold sheaths, which had encased the
furniture, and the inlays that had fallen free and lay on the tombs floor.
Hetepheres' furniture consisted of two armchairs, bed frame, bedcanopy, carrying chair and two boxes.
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We see the introduction of the wooden boxat the end of the Old Kingdom. They weremanufactured with flat, gable, barrel andshrine shaped lids. Some were very largeand were designed with a pair of poles thatenabled the box to be carried by a team of
porters. During the Middle Kingdom we find boxes
were customized to hold cosmetics. Manywere designed like crates to hold smallalabaster jars which held perfumed oils.Other boxes have been found tocontain mirrors, kohl containers, combs andeven a pair of slippers!
Other elaborate boxes held jewellery, thesewere usually inlaid or veneered with sheetsof ivory or exotic timbers bought from landssouth of Egypt.
Scribes even had boxes in which theystored their writing implements and palette.Their boxes were usually painted to imitatethe stringing and veneered panels found onmore ornate boxes.
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Tables were widely used for the
display of vases or holding water
pots. Many are low with straight legs
and have a single stretcher strung
below the table top.
We also see that Egyptian
carpenters were constructing splay
legged tables which had cavetto
cornice mouldings below the edge of
the table top.
Slender vase stands were made
from thin strips of timber braced with
cross and angled struts. They were
fitted with a shaped collar which held
the round base of a single vase.
cavetto cornice
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Chairs made during the Middle
Kingdom had either short backs over
which was draped a cover or cushionor they had backs of full height.
Such chair backs were curved and
made from angled slats of timber. We
see that they stood on slendergazelle-shaped legs.
Often chairs were painted to simulate
animal skin which were painted with a
technique which resembles cow skinand was used on an arrow quiver case
which is preserved in the Egyptian
Museum, Cairo.
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By the New Kingdom, the homes of
officials and nobles would have been
furnished with a wide range of furniture, the
most common of which would have been
the stool.
Egyptians used a large number of different
types of stool. The most commonly used
were lattice stools that were made from
thin struts of timber with angled braces
supporting a double cove seat.
Round legged stools appear in some of the
more important Theban tombs. The
majority of legs from these stools were
hand rounded although there is a small
corpus of material which have legs that
appear to be turned. homes of high rankingofficials.
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During the New Kingdom we see carpenters
sitting on three legged stools which allowed
the stool to rest evenly on the workshop floor. The folding stool originates in the Middle
Kingdom and was made from two interlocking
frames with a leather seat.
New Kingdom examples are more elaborate
having the floor rails and crossing spindles
finished with carved goose head terminals
which are inlaid with ivory to imitate the eyesand neck feathers.
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This is one of the couches of King
Tutankhamun. It is in the form of the
goddess Mehet-weret, the cow goddess
of the sky whose name means "great
flood."
The two cow heads are surmounted by
two horns flanking a solar disk. The
eyes of the cows are inlaid with glass
paste and the body is decorated withdark brown spots. The legs of the cows,
which form the legs of the bed, are
fixed to a rectangular wooden frame.
The surface of the bed is made of fibers
covered with a layer of stucco.
The central panel is decorated with the
Djed and the Ankh signs, which are
covered with gold sheet.
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The furniture manufactured in the royal workshops
were not very different in design to that used by the
middle classes.
However, they were exquisitely embellished with
gold sheet, inlaid with colored stones and faience or
veneered with ebony and ivory. They were also
adorned with the uraeus and the symbols of kingship.Other pieces are inlaid with thousands of slivers of
coloured wood in either marquetry or parquetry
patterns.
The illustrious examples of furniture discovered inthe Tomb of Tutankhamun ( 1336-1327 BC) show
the outstanding quality of design and construction
achieved by 18th dynasty carpenters.
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