of the artists knew no
limits. As for materials, everything was made to serve in turn--granite,
diorite, breccia, red jade, alabaster, and soft limestone, which lent
itself more readily to caprices of form; finally, a still more plastic and
facile substance--clay, painted and glazed.

[Ilustration: Fig. 218.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]

[Illustration: Fig. 219.--Vase for antimony powder.]

It was not for want of material that the art of modelling and baking clays
failed to be as fully developed in Egypt as in Greece, The valley of the
Nile is rich in a fine and ductile potter's clay, with which the happiest
results might have been achieved, had the native craftsman taken the
trouble to prepare it with due care. Metals and hard stone were, however,
always preferred for objects of luxury; the potter was fain, therefore, to
be content with supplying only the commonest needs of household and daily
life. He was wont to take whatever clay happened to be nearest to the place
where he was working, and this clay was habitually badly washed, badly
kneaded, and fashioned with the finger upon a primitive wheel worked by the
hand. The firing was equally careless. Some pieces were barely heated at
all, and melted it they came into contact with water, while others were as
hard as tiles. All tombs of the ancient empire contain vases of a red or
yellow ware, often mixed, like the clay of bricks, with finely-chopped
straw or weeds. These are mostly large solid jars with oval bodies, short
necks, and wide mouths, but having neither foot nor handles. With them are
also found pipkins and pots, in which to store the dead man's provisions;
bowls more or less shallow; and flat plates, such as are still used by the
fellahin. The poorer folk sometimes buried miniature table and kitchen
services with their dead, as being less costly than full-sized vessels. The
surface is seldom glazed, seldom smooth and lustrous; but is ordinarily
covered with a coat of whitish, unbaked paint, which scales off at a touch.
Upon this surface there is neither incised design, nor ornament in relief,
nor any kind of inscription, but merely some four or five parallel lines in
red, black, or yellow, round the neck.

[Illustration: Fig. 220.]

[Illustration: Fig. 221.]

[Illustration: Fig. 222.]

[Illustration: Fig. 223.]

The pottery of the earliest Theban dynasties which I have collected at El
Khozam and Gebeleyn is more carefully wrought than the pottery of th