Cosmetic Palette

Cosmetic palette of greywacke stone with pierced central projection at the top and a bird's head on either side. One head is broken off at the neck. The surviving head has a circular groove for the eye one each side that would once have contained an inlay of ivory, shell or stone. Objects like this were used with a pebble to grind minerals such as malachite to make eyepaint. Marked in pencil on one side XX, and on the other side 3. Excavation not recorded but most likely from when Amy Urlin was part of an excavation team led by her brother-in-law, Professor Flinders Petrie, at Abydos, 1900-01. Lent by Amy Urlin to Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, 1912–1915, for an exhibition curated by Janet May Buchanan (loan registration number: 39j –’12). Compare with Petrie 'Diopolis Parva' (London, 1901), pl. XII (nos. 35-8) which Petrie dates to Sequence Date 50 - 40.