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San Antonio Museum of Art, Museum Purchase: Stark-Willson Collection.

Vase in the form of a Monkey with her Young

San Antonio Museum of Art, Museum Purchase: Stark-Willson Collection.
San Antonio Museum of Art, Museum Purchase: Stark-Willson Collection.
Contact San Antonio Museum of Art, Registrar Department for rights and reproduction of this image. Photography by Peggy Tenison.

Vase in the form of a Monkey with her Young

Culture: Egyptian
Period: Old Kingdom
Dynasty: Dynasty 6
Date: ca. 2278-2184 B.C.
Medium: Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)
Dimensions:
h. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm); w. 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm); d. 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm)
Credit Line: Museum Purchase: Stark-Willson Collection
Object number: 86.138.61
Inscribed: One column of text read right to left: nsw-bity ppy King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Pepy [trans. S. Schellinger, 2018]
Provenance: by purchase, the Stark family, Orange, Texas, between 1927 and 1929; by bequest, the Nelda C. and H. J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, 1965; by purchase, the San Antonio Museum of Art with funding from Mr. and Mrs. Robert Willson, 1986
Published References San Antonio Museum of Art: The First Ten Years (San Antonio, 1990), 62. H. G. Fischer, "Another Pithemorphic Vessel of the Sixth Dynasty," Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 30 (1993), 9. J. Powers and J. Johnston, eds., San Antonio Museum of Art: Guide to the Collection, (San Antonio: San Antonio Museum of Art, 2012), 24. G. D. Scott, III, "An Old Kingdom Monkey Vase in the Collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art," in A. Oppenheim & O. Goelet, eds., The Art and Culture of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Dorothea Arnold (New York: Egyptological Seminar of New York, 2015), 585-90. J. Powers, "Provenance Research and the Ancient Mediterranean Collection in the San Antonio Museum of Art," in J. N. Hopkins, S. K. Costello & P. R. Davis, eds., Object Biographies: Collaborative Approaches to Ancient Mediterranean Art (Houston and New Haven: The Menil Collection and Yale University Press, 2021), 193, fig. 9.2.
Label Text
This amusing vase probably once held scented oil or perfume. The Egyptians imported vervet monkeys from the region of modern Ethiopia, and the perfume's ingredients also came from this area. The mother monkey's right shoulder is inscribed with the name of Pepy II. The charming vase of scented oil was probably a prestigious gift given by the king to an honored member of his court. (J. Powers, 2013)


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The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.



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