King Tut and Dolls; Memories of an Exhibit

King Tut

 

Ancient Egypt is often credited with first using the doll as a toy for children.  Having said that, many doll historians note that the Ushabti, sometimes pronounced “shawbti” or “shoabti”, are doll figures with ritual significance. 

 

Pics Mitch Milani and Ellen Tsagaris

Many collectors are familiar with small faience figures, about an inch or two in height, that look like tiny mummies.  They are designed with hieroglyphs, including scarabs at times. These were sometimes pressed in molds and contained in boxes.  Sadigh Gallery has examples of these in its catalogs.

 

More elaborate Ushabti are covered with gold, decorated with stones, are made of glazed ceramic, and have more detailed facial features. 

 

Within the last few years, I was privileged to view the travelling Treasures of King Tut exhibit, which was something on my “bucket list” I’ve waited to see since I was 16 years old.  I’ve missed it twice in Chicago, so this was all or nothing.  When my alma mater invited my family and me to a special showing with lecture and Ancient Egyptian-inspired hor d’oeuvres, I jumped at the opportunity.

 

Note:  This exhibit does not contain the treasures from antiquity.  The Director of the Putnam Museum where the exhibit was held informed us that since the Arab Spring, the original treasures cannot leave Egypt.  Instead, a group of carefully skilled artisans made reproductions, over 1000 of them, that can’t be distinguished from the originals.  They are breathtaking, and one of my posts will feature a gallery of the photos we took.

 

The Putnam does have a large collection of authentic artifacts that originated with the collection of Dr. B. J. Palmer, father of modern Chiropractic.  One of these is an unwrapped mummy of a woman; she has been there since the first time I saw her at age 6!

 

The Ushabti on display for Tut were around 18 inches high, and breathtaking in their detail.  One featured the infant King Tut holding a silver rattle, which looks very much like expensive children’s rattles throughout history.  Egyptologists believe this was a toy, and not a religious item.  I find that interesting, since most early objects that rattled were believed to have religious significance throughout the Ancient World by anthropologists and archaeologists.

 

The portrait mannikin of Tut was also on exhibit.  This figure was used to model Tut’s clothing.  It may have also been a tailor’s dummy.  I have seen it photographed in many of my doll books.

 

Amid the early board games and throwing sticks Tut played with, was a reproduction of an alabaster vessel surrounded by 4 realistic ethnic portraits of other peoples who lived during Tut’s era.  These were not two-dimensional hieroglyphic sculptures, but realistic, with ethnic features and skin tones including African and Asian.  This is significant to me since we sometimes have the idea Ancient Egyptian artists could only create one way stylistically.

 

The magnificent death mask of Tut, all gold and Lapis Lazuli was represented; the Peggy Nisbet portrait doll of Tut is very accurate; I like it because its head is metal.

 

The elaborate coffins, his chariot, the gorgeous throne, all are there.  Also, there was information about Queen Nefertiti, who has also inspired dolls.  She was once considered the most beautiful woman in the world.  New information indicates her tomb may be near Tut’s.  Also, Nefertiti was related to Tut, perhaps as his mother in law.  We do know she was the wife of the discredited king, Ahkenaten.

 

The Tut exhibit travels; look for it in your town.  In California, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum has an amazing collection of artifacts.  The Milwaukee Public Museum and Art Institute of Chicago also have wonderful collections.  If you life near Cairo, then you have the best “seat in the house” for this type of art.  The British Museum has a wonderful Egyptian collection, too.  For more on Howard Carter who found Tut’s tomb, try works by James Patterson and Time Life Books’ “Ancient Egypt.”  Biographies of Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Nefertiti, and Anne Rice’s “The Mummy Ramses the Damned” are also of interest. National Geographic’s video on Tut’s treasures is quite good, and Pauline Gedge’s “The Lady of the Reeds” is well researched along with “Wine of the Dreamers”, a time travel romance based on Ancient Egypt.