Decorated spoon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Decorated spoons in the form of an arm and hand holding a shell have a long history in Egyptian Art. The Late New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period through Saite Period has produced a number of spoons consisting of a large shell-shaped bowl gripped by a long-fingered hand provided with only a wrist and lower forearm. Faience and fine grained stones are generally used. A number of examples of this kind are inscribed with names of gods and donors. This example and one other are the only examples of the numerous preserved examples of decorated spoons of any type that retain any signs of contents. This one has traces of a red pigment, which has suggested to some it may have been reused.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art