Cosmetic Spoon with a Jar Bearer
Unknown · New Kingdom, 1539-1069 BC
A man stands upright, bent slightly under the weight of a large jar carried on his shoulder. His pleated kilt and his features mark him as a foreigner, one of the Syrians or Nubians who appear in Egyptian art bringing tribute or serving at court. The jar is the point of the object: it is hollowed out to form the bowl of a cosmetic spoon, and a small lid, now missing, once pivoted over it to protect the ointment inside. The figure is cut in openwork so that light passes between the arms and the body, and details of hair, kilt and jar are engraved and inlaid. At twenty nine centimetres it sat comfortably in the hand.
The spoon dates to the New Kingdom, when Egypt ruled an empire from Nubia to Syria and foreigners bearing precious goods became a favourite motif of decorative art. The idea is gently witty: a servant from a conquered land carries your perfume for you, forever. Compare it with the swimming girl nearby, which uses the same trick of hiding a container inside a figure. The spoon belonged to the British consul general Henry Salt and came to the Louvre in 1826.
Did You Know? The heavy jar on the man's shoulder is the spoon's bowl; the pivoting lid that once closed it is lost.
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