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© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.  Photo by Michael McKelvey.
Mirror
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.  Photo by Michael McKelvey.
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.
ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Mirror

AAT Object Form/FunctionHand Mirrors
Place FoundEgypt, Africa
CultureEgyptian
Date1539-1077 BCE
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
  • Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art
© Bruce M. White, 2005.
1539-1292 BCE
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
early 4th Century BCE
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
1980-1077 BCE
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
722 BCE-642 CE
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
722 BCE - 642 CE
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
late 2nd - early 7th Century CE
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
1539-1292 BCE
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
1630-1540 BCE
© Bruce M. White, 2008.
Giovanni Battista Falda
First published 1677, MCCM edition published ca. 1688
© Bruce M. White, 2008.
Giovanni Battista Falda
First published 1677, MCCM edition published ca. 1688