https://woodenfossils.wordpress.com/2021/09/21/building-a-theban-lattice-stool/

Skip to content

Fossil Brains

Good ideas embedded in old things

Building a Theban Lattice Stool

I found this ancient Egyptian stool on the British Museum's website
in early 2020 and fell in love with it. A couple of things pushed me
to make a copy - curiosity about the execution of its joinery and a
desire to own it, sit on it, and see how it holds up over time.

[image-24](c) The Trustees of the British Museum

I'd planned to visit and photograph the museum display but COVID
cancelled my London vacation and I had to make due with the website
images. Thankfully, the object's Museum page has excellent pictures,
measurements and the image viewer allows you to zoom in quite close.
The stool's catalogue number at the British Museum is EA2476.

[img_6247](c) The Trustees of the British Museum

EA2476 was purchased in 1835 from a sale of the estate of Henry Salt,
a British painter, diplomat and collector. This sale of Egyptian tomb
goods represented only one of several large hauls he'd amassed and
sold off during his 47 year life. Busy guy.

I did some online image research and found a number of very closely
related stools from 18th Dynasty Theban tombs. There's a very similar
stool from the Tutankhamen tomb among the Harry Burton photos
archived at the Griffith Institute at Oxford University. The
Institute has a number of collections documenting that excavation and
many other resources worth exploring. I was amazed to find they sell
contact prints made from the large format negatives in their
collection and I purchased a couple of this particular stool - object
84. Compared to EA2476, it's a little more gracile, with a leather
seat stitched to an open frame rather than curved wooden slats but
it's nearly identical otherwise and the photo is a useful view.

[img_5305](c) Griffith Institute, University of Oxford

There's another stool sitting a few feet away from where object 84
was found. It appears to be made of reed and looks like the
inspiration for the wooden versions. Lumber was an expensive import
product, so I'm guessing this sort of reed furniture was more widely
used in ancient Egypt than it's representation in upper class tombs
might suggest.

[img_5273](c) Griffith Institute, University of Oxford

Next instalment touches upon EA2476's influence on early/mid 20th
century furniture design, then gets ready for the build.

Share this:

  * Twitter
  * Facebook
  * 

Like this:

Like Loading...
Published September 21, 2021By Paul Bouchard
Categorized as Theban Stool, Woodwork

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...
[                    ]

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

  *  
  *  
  * 
  *  
  *  

Gravatar
Email (required) (Address never made public)
[                    ]
Name (required)
[                    ]
Website
[                    ]
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / 
Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

[ ] Notify me of new comments via email.

[ ] Notify me of new posts via email.

[Post Comment] 

[                                             ]
[                                             ]
[                                             ]
[                                             ]
[                                             ]
[                                             ]
[                                             ]
[                                             ]
Post navigation

 

Previous post

Commercial reproductions of Theban lattice stools

Fossil Brains
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.
Create your website with WordPress.com
Get started 
 

  

Loading Comments...
 
Write a Comment... [                    ]
Email (Required) [                    ] Name (Required)
[                    ] Website [                    ]
[Post Comment]

[Close and accept] Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By
continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie
Policy
%d bloggers like this:

[b]