Topic: Luxor vase - Walther & Sohne

[Anne E.B.]

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-6028

(other views also shown)

I bought this purely out of curiosity because it looked interesting. Fortunately I spotted a similar looking green version on Pamela's website and believe it to be by Walther & Sohne 1934 and called "Luxor".

Would I be right in assuming that this art deco design (and pattern name) was influenced may be by the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922/3 in Luxor?  It appears to have palm leaves around the base and drapes for the want of a better word, at the top.  Very Egyptian looking

[Bernard C]

Anne — The design looked familiar, so we must have seen it in and around the West Bank, Luxor, Karnak, and other sites along the Nile.    Janet found it first in the guidebooks.

It is a stylised representation of the papyrus flower, seen most prominently on the capitals of the many papyriform columns around the Solar Court of Amenophis III (1387–49 BC) and the Hypostyle Portico (the entrance to the Court) at the centre of the original Temple of Luxor.   The inner sanctum of this original temple is reached through a series of rooms to the SW.   Rameses II (1279–13 BC) remodelled the temple by extending it at a slight angle to the original alignment to the NE, lining up his immense pylon and other structures with the temple complex at Karnak about two miles away.

There are also papyriform columns at Karnak, but they are not as prominent in the same way.

Besides its many practical uses, papyrus had religious significance as symbolic of the primeval swamp from which all life emerged.

No particular connection with Tutankhamun.   The person who named the design obviously had the Temple of Luxor in mind.

I hope that is useful.

Bernard C. 

[Anne E.B.]

Thank you Bernard for your interesting comments and a big thank you to Janet also  Your suggestion about the connection makes more sense.  I like the idea of it being a papyriform column , or at least the design being influenced by one.  The vase is much nicer in reality than it looks in my photos - quite a monumental piece, in more ways than one  

Egypt is on my list of "want to go" places.

 

[Bernard C]

... I like the idea of it being a papyriform column, or at least the design being influenced by one. ...

Anne — Not the column, but the capital, the fancy bit at the top of the column.

... Egypt is on my list of "want to go" places.

Let us know if you want to go.   We have been twice now and would love to do it again.   You get hooked on it for many reasons, including meeting lovely Egyptian Arabs.   We stay in a de-luxe self-catering apartment with swimming pool on the southern edge of Luxor, surrounded by the fields of subsistence farmers, and run by a delightful English lady, who goes out of her way to ensure we get it right.

Bernard C. 

[Anne E.B.]

... I like the idea of it being a papyriform column, or at least the design being influenced by one. ...

Anne — Not the column, but the capital, the fancy bit at the top of the column.

Just my over-active imagination Bernard

It sounds a wonderful place, but we are booked for Cyprus this year, so may be next year

[pamela]

Thank you Anne, Janet and Bernard for all this information - I had no idea so far! Papyrus is a great and best explanation - unfortunately I laid sick in our Nile ship cabin when all others visited Karnak 

[Anne E.B.]

What a shame you missed the trip to Karnak Pamela!  May be next time.  One of the perils of cruise ship holidays I guess.  I just know I'd be ill with sea sickness all the time.  I like my feet firmly on ground - that doesn't move

[pamela]

Anne E.B.,you do not feel the ground moving - feel good on your tour!

[RAY]

me and Julie are off in July to Egypt for the 10th time, doing the cruise and stay from Luxor to Aswan

Anne if you turn it upside down, it's a palm tree and as Bernard said the right way up it a column, that sort of column is found further up the Nile,to name a few, Edfu, kom-ombo and Agilika Island (Philae Temple), and as Bernard said there is some in karnak temple in the hyperstyle hall with the lotus leaf decoration going around the tops

[Anne E.B.]

For interest, just spotted these identical (but pink) vases which are marked BELGE on the base.  Does this mean that they are not by Walther & Sohne, or that they are, with just the mark added for the Belgium market?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6635916089