An Egyptian Anhydrite (“Blue Marble”) Kohl Vessel, late 12th/early 13th Dynasty, circa 1800-1700 B.C.

carved in four parts, of slender flaring form with flat base and everted rim, the cover surmounted by a small kohl jar carved in one piece with it, with separately carved broad rim and flat circular lid; apparent remains of dark gray kohl (galena?) in the upper container and underside of its lid.

Garrett Chatfield Pier (American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, Egyptian Antiquities from the Private Collection of Garrett Chatfield Pier, March 6th-7th, 1936, no. 71, illus.)
collection of Royall Tyler (1884-1953), Paris, acquired at the above sale on his behalf by Joseph Brummer
by descent to the present owner

Very good. For the body of the vessel note stable hairline stress crack, and three very minor chips or flaws on the edge of rim. The primary lid has an old chip on the edge. The separately carved rim has a hairline crack running across it, and a tiny chip on the edge. The upper lid has a small chip on the lower edge, and the tenon underneath, covered with kohl, is irregular (chipped?) in form.
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The archaeologist and curator Garrett Chatfield Pier (1875-1943) acquired the first of his Egyptian antiquities in 1897, and “published an account of them, Egyptian Antiquities in the Pier Collection, Chicago, 1906; he lent his collection of small objects to Yale University, 1930…”; see Who Was Who in Egyptology, London, 1995, pp. 334-335.

For the use of anhydrite in ancient Egypt see Biri Fay, “Egyptian Duck Flasks of Blue Anhydrite”, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 33, New York, 1998, pp. 23-48. The author writes (p. 27) that “anhydrite objects are so rare and the period of their production so limited that the ancient source of the material must have been small, and evidently virtually exhausted by Dynasty 18…”.