Bound Oryx Dish

Wooden toilet dish in the form of a bound oryx. Feet folded under body bound with four thongs. Head in the round with horns connected at their ends to body. Tail curved against body. One side of body hollowed in roughly oval shape to serve as container. Condition: Slight restoration in gesso near feet. One section of horn restored. Horns had warped slightly.

This work represents an Egyptian antelope, now extinct, called the scimitar oryx. The Egyptians attempted to domesticate this species during the Old Kingdom and to use it as a food source for gods and humans. Typically it is shown bound, because it was considered an enemy of Osiris.

This dish was used both to offer ...