The style and development of ancient Egyptian furniture - Decoration and Embellishment, part 2

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 1997 by Geoffrey Killen

Egyptian carpenters were decorating furniture as early as the First Dynasty (3100-2890 B.C.).[1] Surprisingly, common design standards were being followed in both Upper and Lower Egypt quite soon after the unification of the state in 3100 B.C. Simple but complete bull-legged bedframes and tables have been discovered at Saqqara in Lower Egypt as.well as at Abydos and Gebelein in Upper Egypt. Fragmentary evidence from a number of First Dynasty sites in Egypt shows that inlays and veneers of various materials were already being used to embellish furniture.

In the First Dynasty tomb of Hemaka at Saqqara (S[aqqara no.] 3035), which was discovered in 1935 by Walter Bryan Emery (1903-1971) of University College, London, there was a pair of small boxes inlaid with strips of ivory and wood of various colors. In tomb S 3504 Emery found a small fragment of First Dynasty wood inlaid with triangular pieces of blue-glazed faience.[2] Small recesses had been accurately carved into the wood and the faience fixed in them with resin or plaster. The plaster was made from gypsum, a hydrated form of calcium sulphate that occurs naturally in rock or crystal form in Egypt. Ground and mixed with water to make a thick paste, it could be used as a simple adhesive or could be spread on furniture to disguise knots or irregularities of grain.

In his 1895-1896 expedition to Abydos, Emile Amelineau (1850-1915) discovered a fragment of inlaid wood in the First Dynasty tomb of King Semerkhet, and a matching fragment was found four years later by the British Egyptologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942). The two pieces were reunited (Pl. III) to form what was originally thought to be part of a box lid, for at one end is a small dowel hole that appeared to be part of a hinge mechanism. However, as the united fragment is decorated on both sides, it appears to have been part of a horizontal rail between two vertical stiles. One side has been inlaid with triangular pieces of wood and molded faience tries now badly faded (Pl. III, left). The inlay is attached with a yellow adhesive and is bordered. by a pattern of bound rushes or basketwork that is both accurately and delicately carved. This border pattern is commonly found on wooden fragments from sites in both Upper and Lower Egypt. In this instance the border was lightly gessoed and then covered with a layer of fine wet linen that was pressed into the incised pattern. Before the gesso and linen dried, gold foil was burnished onto the foundation.

The back side of the rail (Pl. III, right) has a much wider border, where some of the gold foil decoration is visible in the deep impressions of the carved pattern. A plaque set in the center has been carved in raised relief with a serekh, symbolizing a palace facade, on which is perched Horus as the falcon god.

Another common decorative feature found on furniture of the Early Dynastic Period (3100-2686 B.C.) is strips of thin ivory veneer attached to the wood with small ivory pegs. These strips were adorned with various patterns of incised lines, which were painted or stained (see Pl. V).

A remarkable series of Third Dynasty (2686-2613 B.C.) wall paintings in the tomb of the official Hesyre (w. c. 2620 B.C.) at Saqqara shows four splendid chests. Apparently of frame and panel construction, they are decorated with the hieroglyphic symbols for died (stability) and tyet (knot of Isis). These have been painted to indicate that they were made of either dark or gilded wood.

Two beautifully carved and polished symbolic ornaments (Pls. I, II) manifest the method of applying decorations to furniture. Both the tyet ornament in Plate I and the died pillar in Plate II have tenons at both ends that would have been pegged into mortises cut in a pair of horizontal rafts. This suggests they could have been part of a frieze between the legs of a chest or forming the back of a chair.

The reconstructed furniture from the Fourth Dynasty (2613-2494 B.C.) tomb of Queen Hetepheres I(3) draws together all the decorative techniques found on fragments of furniture and paintings of furniture of the Early Dynastic Period. The bed canopy was covered in thick gold sheet that was pressed, beaten, and burnished onto the wooden elements of this first piece of "knock-down" furniture. Where the sections of the canopy fit together the joints are reinforced with thick sheets of copper that mitigated wear as the canopy was repeatedly moved and reassembled. Before being encased in gold sheet, the wooden entrance jambs of the canopy were carved with the names and titles of Sneferu, the queens husband. The frames of both the chair and bed were similarly encased in gold sheet. The footboard of the bedframe and the side panels of the box in which the canopy's curtains were stored were inlaid with a feathered pattern of blue-green and black faience. Each piece of inlay was fitted into a chiseled cavity four millimeters deep that was first lined with sheet gold, burnished into place. The inlays were then held in place with a piaster adhesive.(4) The endboards of the box are elaborately inlaid with royal scenes and hieroglyphic symbols. The endboard shown in Plate VII depicts Sneferu in profile seated on a chair that has a cushion draped over the low back. He holds a staff in one hand while the other rests on his thigh. He faces his Horus name within a serekh frame, while behind him is his royal name within an inlaid cartouche. Above soars the goddess Nekhbet in her vulture form.