© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Mirror

AAT Object Form/FunctionHand Mirrors

Place FoundEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodNew Kingdom

Date1539-1077 BCE

MediumBronze, wood

Credit LineCollected by William A. Shelton, funded by John A. Manget

Dimensions10 1/2 x 5 3/16 in. (26.7 x 13.2 cm)

Object number1921.041

Label TextIn addition to being functional, mirrors, capturing the likeness of an individual, were thought to be haunts of the soul. The word for life, ankh, is the same as that for mirror. Most mirror disks in the New Kingdom were of highly polished bronze, so perhaps seeing one's face reflected in it would be a reminder of the transformation of the face into the golden skin of the god Osiris in the next life.

Mirrors were highly prized objects in life and were also frequently included in the tomb furniture. This mirror combines an oval disk, to copy the shape of the rising sun, and club-shaped handle of fine hardwood with channels of inlay, now lost, at the bottom.
Exhibition HistoryA Preview of the Collections, Schatten Gallery, February 15 - April 4, 1982
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11, 1993 - Spring 1998
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - September 9, 2022
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, September 19, 2022 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum 2001), 28.

ProvenanceAcquired for Emory University Museum by William Shelton (1875-1959), ca. 1920.

Status

On view

Collections