How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
With these preliminary words we may leave him to examine the
collection, reserving to ourselves the task of pointing his attention
to one or two of the more remarkable specimens. First let the visitor
notice the complete set of four, in arragonite, marked 614-17. These
were for the internal parts of prince Amen-em-api, the eldest son of
Rameses II., and as the visitor will notice, have severally their
presiding genius, with sacred inscriptions. Another remarkable vase is
that in arragonite marked 609, with its cover fashioned in the form of
a human head, and the remains of an inscription which had been laid on
with a thick kind of colour. That marked 629 with the jackal-head of
Tuantmutf, bears an inscription in which the standard-bearer of Plato
named Hara, part of whose body was inclosed, is reminded that the
genius attends him. One (635) of arragonite has a green waxy paint,
and belonged to a royal bow-bearer of the nineteenth dynasty, named
Renfu. There is another complete set, which do not appear to have been
opened, marked 636-39. The arragonite vases are the most expensive,
and, as we have remarked the most highly finished; but the visitor may
notice also those in coarser material.
Having sufficiently examined these vases, the visitor may take a
general glance at the contents of the saloon, and prepare to examine
the Sphinxes, and colossal figures that are crowded into it. In these
he will recognise only colossal copies of many of the little figures
he saw in the Mummy room up stairs. He will see huge granite
representations of the strange gods and goddesses to which the
ancients devoutly knelt; and in many of these forms he will trace a
placid beauty that reveals often the soul of the sculptor fettered by
the strange formulas of his religion. The visitor having examined the
high reliefs on the tablets and sepulchral monuments of the ancient
Egyptians, has now to examine the specimens that remain of their
statuary. But first of
EGYPTIAN HUMAN STATUES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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