Gifts of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Faience (Florence Dunn Friedman)

• Author: Florence Dunn Friedman

Condition & Size

• Size: Extra Large
• Book Type: Large Hardcover
• CAI Condition Score: 7/10.
• CAI Condition Description: Very Good

About This Book

This publication documenting the RISD's international loan exhibition is the the first in-depth American study of faience, a non-clay ceramic material with a glistening surface of scintillating colors including the vibrant blue of the Egyptian sky. Five essays and individual object entries by top scholars in the field illuminate the subject. "Gifts of the Nile" features more than two hundred small-scale masterpieces spanning three thousand years of ancient Egyptian history. Created from common materials, but possessing the majesty of gold and semi-precious gems, the ceramic now known as faience was used by the ancient Egyptians for a variety of luxury objects. Dolls were fashioned from it, as were baby feeders docorated to magically protect mother and child. Faience could be shaped into mummy masks, amulets, chalices, bowls, inkwells, jewelry, tiles and inlays for furniture. Its great popularity could have been due to one particular characteristic: radiance and brilliance, to the Egyptians a perfect metaphor for life, death and rebirth.