Fish-Shaped Cosmetic Palette

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Fish-Shaped Cosmetic Palette

Place of OriginEgypt

DatePredynastic Period, about 4000-3200 BCE

Dimensions3 3/8 × 5 5/8 × 1/8 in. (8.6 × 14.3 × 0.3 cm)

MediumShaped and incised greywacke (sandstone conglomerate)

ClassificationUtilitarian Objects

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1972.12

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

Label TextThis greywacke cosmetic palette, shaped like a fish, is an early example of Egyptian cosmetic tools, used for grinding minerals such as malachite into pigment for eye paint. Cosmetic palettes were especially prevalent during the Pre-Dynastic and Early Dynastic periods (ca. 3500–2900 BCE). Initially simple and functional, these objects evolved into refined, symbolic forms.Published References"Recent accessions...;" Art Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 4, 1972, p. 435.

"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol 19, no. 2 and 3, 1976, p. 43, repr.

Peck, William H., Sandra E. Knudsen and Paula Reich, Egypt in Toledo: The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2011, p. 28, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, 2010-2012