A miniature Egyptian Breccia Model Vessel, Old Kingdom, ca. 2575 - 2134 BCE

This small, conical version of an everyday vessel is artifully carved from two-toned red breccia, and features a shallow interior with visible drill marks, and an incised band to accentuate the small everted rim. Such models were placed in ancient Egyptian tombs during the Old Kingdom period to symbolically provide sustenance to the deceased in the afterlife. They were typically solid or had only token cavities, such as this example, signifying their symbolic function rather than practical use.

Medium: Breccia

Dimensions: Height: 1 3/4 inches, Width: 1 3/8 inches (3.5 cm)

Condition: Small loss to the vessels pointed base, and shallow ship to the rim, otherwise intact and in very good condition overall.

Provenance: Royall Tyler (1884 - 1953), thence by descent. Royall ("Peter") Tyler was an historian, diplomat, economist, and art connoisseur. He was his the deputy commissioner general of the Economic and Financial Section of the League of Nations in Geneva (1924–1928). In 1923, Royall Tyler and Elisina Tyler acquired (and later restored) the historic garrison-castle, Antigny-le-Château, in Burgundy. Tyler was instrumental in organizing the first international exhibition of Byzantine art in Paris in 1931. In the same year, he became the League of Nations Financial Committee’s financial advisor to the Hungarian government in Budapest (1931–1938). In 1938, Tyler was appointed as expert in the Economic and Financial Section of the League of Nations in Geneva (1938–1943). Between 1943 and 1949, Tyler served as the Swiss representative of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and, in 1944, as the special attaché to the U.S. Legation in Bern. He died at the age of sixty-eight on March 2, 1953, in Paris, apparently by suicide.