Cabinet, ca. 1640-1650

The sophisticated ripple moldings on the cabinet’s exterior playfully bring out the lustrous quality of the severe black ebony. Other tropical veneers as well as inlays of mother-of-pearl and green-stained horn enliven the cabinet’s interior which encloses multiple drawers as well as a compartment with a mirror-lined "stage" for the display of a treasured artwork. This cabinet is attributed to Herman Doomer, one of the few cabinetmakers working with ebony and mother-of-pearl in Amsterdam, the foremost European market for such exotic materials. Doomer gained fame through the portrait Rembrandt painted of him, also in the Museum's collection (see 29.100.1).

See more images, go to source link below.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/238523

 

Portable Diptych Sundial, ca. 1598, German

The growing production of mechanical clocks during the Renaissance had the effect of stimulating the construction of a variety of timekeeping instruments. Sundials were used for setting clocks, as well as for regulating their still inaccurate movements. Both the variety and number of sundials proliferated, but Nuremberg sundial makers specialized in small, folding, easily portable types made of ivory or wood. This dial, which can be used to tell the time in several different systems of counting the hours, was made to be used in Nuremberg's latitude of 49 1/2 degrees. Other portable sundials made in Nuremberg can be adjusted for use in several latitudes.

Source:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/188849

 

Historical Objects

Go to link below, zoom in and see the details. 

https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/13/collection/65238/emperor-claudius

Go to link, zoom in to see details. 

https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/9/collection/2306/jar-and-cover-mounted-as-a-pot-pourri

 

Ancient World Board Games

A Ludus Latrunculorum board found in Roman Britain 

(English Heritage / The Trustees of the Corbridge Excavation Fund)

This roughly 4,500-year-old board features shell plaque squares encircled by strips of lapis lazuli and decorated with intricate floral and geometric designs. 

(© Trustees of the British Museum)

This ancient Egyptian Senet board is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

(Public domain)

This Senet board dates to between roughly 1390 and 1353 B.C. 

(Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund / Brooklyn Museum)

Source is Smithsonian Magazine. 

Click on link below to learn about these games 

and see more. 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-games-ancient-world-180974094/

 

Egypt

The estate manager Wah was buried in a small tomb near the imposing one of his employer, Meketre, an important official who began his career under Mentuhotep II of Dynasty 11 and continued to serve successive kings into early Dynasty 12. Wah's burial was found intact by the Museum excavators and the objects came to the Museum in the division of finds. In 1939, the mummy was unwrapped and many fine objects were discovered. All three of Wah's scarab and bead bracelets (40.3.12-.14) were found in wrappings over the wrists of Wah's mummy. This large silver scarab is of exceptionally fine workmanship. It was cast in several sections that were soldered together. Details on the legs, head, and wing cases and the scroll meander pattern on the base were chased. A gold suspension tube runs through the length of the scarab. Inlaid hieroglyphs on the scarab's wing cases are of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver. Their light color renders them almost invisible unless the scarab is tarnished. The inscription on the left wing case identifies Wah as the estate manager of Meketre whose name appears on the right wing case.

The cornflower and ball beads in this necklace were made by soldering wire rings of several different diameters into the desired forms. The piece is an early example of the technique known as filagree. Discovered with a cache of jewelry in the Valley of the Kings, the necklace is thought to have belonged to Tawosret, wife of the Seti II and regent for her husband's successor Siptah. Tawosret, who reigned Egypt in her own right for several years at the end of Dynasty 19, was one of the few female rulers of Egypt, the most famous of whom are Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII.

These sandals were part of the funerary equipment belonging to one of three foreign wives of Thutmose III. They are made of thin sheet gold that would not have withstood normal wear; they were intended for funerary use only. The sandals are decorated with details intended to imitate the decoration on leather sandals.

metmuseum.org

Parthenon

Athens, Greece

Temple

Classical

Completed 438 BC

Dedicated to Goddess Athena

Cavalry

Frieze Section

Location British Museum