During the New Kingdom, in particular the late 18th Dynasty, certain pottery forms including storage jars and bowls became highly decorative and featured moulded and painted motifs. Blue pigment, derived from cobalt, was also used to decorate pottery during this time and is distinctive to the New Kingdom and to particular sites including Amarna, Gurob and Malqata (Thebes).

Painted and moulded floral designs such as lotuses, cornflowers and poppies were used to decorate the vessels as well as animals including ducks, gazelles and ibexes.

Hathor, goddess of fertility and beauty, was often shown with a human face and cow’s ears on blue painted pottery jars.

This is a piece a such a jar, but only the head of Hathor.

Material: Pottery

Size: 8 x 75 cm

Weight: 104 grams

Period: Armarna period 1353 - 1336 B.C.

Condition: Fragment

Provenance: Private french collection F.H 1980’s

Price: € 750,—

Example from Cleveland museum of Art