Unknown Maker, Egyptian

Only a handful of paint boxes survive from ancient Egypt. This unusual cermaic example has a sliding lid with a grip in the form of a genet, an animal related to the mongoose. The stylized papyrus thickets represent the genet's habitat of tall grasses and shrubs.

Featuring a hollow well for water and brush storage, the box contains seven pigment cakes of yellow ochre, Egyptian blue (a synthetic pigment composed of silica, copper, and calcium), calcium carbonate (white), hematite (dark red), hematite mixed with calcium carbonate (lighter red), and two charcoal blacks. Painters used these same pigments to decorate statuary and the walls of temples and tombs.