EGYPTIAN FURNITURE

Many Pre-dynastic burials in the Nile valley have the body placed on wooden poles and covered with a matting made of plant fibre while some burials are found in primitive wooden boxes. By the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt we find bed frames were in common use with many examples being found in 1st dynasty (31002890 BC) tombs. The quality of these bed frames ranged from conveniently shaped branches that were lashed together, to sophisticated examples made from rounded poles that were jointed together and supported on finely carved bovine shaped legs.

Of all the beds found, this one is the finest and most elaborate with a carved ebony frame covered in gold sheet. It has a string-mesh mattress and its footboard is divided into three panels. The central panel is decorated in relief with the "sema-tawy" symbol of unification; the other two panels show plant designs. Noting the scratch marks on the gold, the excavator concluded that this bed was actually used by the king during his lifetime.

 The Egyptian bed was a rectangular wooden frame with a mat of woven cords. Instead of using pillows, the Egyptians used a crescent-shaped headrest at one end of the bed. Beds were made of a woven mat placed on wooden framework standing on animalshaped legs. At one end was a footboard and at the other was a headrest made a curved neckpiece set on top of a short pillar on an oblong base

 Headrests were used in ancient Egypt and are still used in some African regions to protect the head of the sleeper and ease the circulation of air around the head in the hot summer nights.

At the beginning of the Old Kingdom, which opens with the 3rd dynasty (2686-2613BC), there were major advances in building and the associated trade of carpentry. The quality of royal furniture made during this period can be seen in those examples discovered by the American Egyptologist George Reisner, in the 4th dynasty tomb of Queen Hetepheres (c 2600 BC) at Giza. When he opened the tomb, he found that the wooden elements from which the furniture had been made had rotted away to powder. However, it proved possible to reconstruct much of the Queen's furniture by studying the positions of the gold sheaths, which had encased the furniture, and the inlays that had fallen free and lay on the tombs floor. Hetepheres' furniture consisted of two armchairs, bed frame, bed canopy, carrying chair and two boxes.

We see the introduction of the wooden box at the end of the Old Kingdom. They were manufactured with flat, gable, barrel and shrine shaped lids. Some were very large and were designed with a pair of poles that enabled the box to be carried by a team of porters. During the Middle Kingdom we find boxes were customized to hold cosmetics. Many were designed like crates to hold small alabaster jars which held perfumed oils. Other boxes have been found to contain mirrors, kohl containers, combs and even a pair of slippers!

Other elaborate boxes held jewellery, these were usually inlaid or veneered with sheets of ivory or exotic timbers bought from lands south of Egypt.
Scribes even had boxes in which they stored their writing implements and palette. Their boxes were usually painted to imitate the stringing and veneered panels found on more ornate boxes.

Tables were widely used for the display of vases or holding water pots. Many are low with straight legs and have a single stretcher strung below the table top.

cavetto cornice

We also see that Egyptian carpenters were constructing splay legged tables which had cavetto cornice mouldings below the edge of the table top.
Slender vase stands were made from thin strips of timber braced with cross and angled struts. They were fitted with a shaped collar which held the round base of a single vase.

 Chairs made during the Middle Kingdom had either short backs over which was draped a cover or cushion or they had backs of full height.

Such chair backs were curved and made from angled slats of timber. We see that they stood on slender gazelle-shaped legs.
Often chairs were painted to simulate animal skin which were painted with a technique which resembles cow skin and was used on an arrow quiver case which is preserved in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

By the New Kingdom, the homes of officials and nobles would have been furnished with a wide range of furniture, the most common of which would have been the stool. Egyptians used a large number of different types of stool. The most commonly used were lattice stools that were made from thin struts of timber with angled braces supporting a double cove seat. Round legged stools appear in some of the more important Theban tombs. The majority of legs from these stools were hand rounded although there is a small corpus of material which have legs that appear to be turned. homes of high ranking officials.

 During the New Kingdom we see carpenters sitting on three legged stools which allowed the stool to rest evenly on the workshop floor. The folding stool originates in the Middle Kingdom and was made from two interlocking frames with a leather seat. New Kingdom examples are more elaborate having the floor rails and crossing spindles finished with carved goose head terminals which are inlaid with ivory to imitate the eyes and neck feathers.

 This is one of the couches of King Tutankhamun. It is in the form of the goddess Mehet-weret, the cow goddess of the sky whose name means "great flood."

The two cow heads are surmounted by two horns flanking a solar disk. The eyes of the cows are inlaid with glass paste and the body is decorated with dark brown spots. The legs of the cows, which form the legs of the bed, are fixed to a rectangular wooden frame. The surface of the bed is made of fibers covered with a layer of stucco.
The central panel is decorated with the Djed and the Ankh signs, which are covered with gold sheet.

 This wooden bed is covered with gilded plaster designed to represent two elongated lionesses. The two lionesses represent the goddess Mehet. According to ancient Egyptian beliefs, Mehet was identified with Hathor, Sekhmet, and Isis and helped to cause the Nile flood when she was appeased. The eyes of these animals are inlaid with blue glass paste; the eyelids are colored in black. The central panel is decorated with the Djed and the Ankh signs.

 The furniture manufactured in the royal workshops were not very different in design to that used by the middle classes. However, they were exquisitely embellished with gold sheet, inlaid with colored stones and faience or veneered with ebony and ivory. They were also adorned with the uraeus and the symbols of kingship. Other pieces are inlaid with thousands of slivers of coloured wood in either marquetry or parquetry patterns. The illustrious examples of furniture discovered in the Tomb of Tutankhamun ( 1336-1327 BC) show the outstanding quality of design and construction achieved by 18th dynasty carpenters.

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