Egyptian
Pair of Bottles with Egyptian Sand, 1875
Engraved glass, sand, cork, 19.3 cm (7 5/8 in.)
These two engraved glass bottles are identically shaped. Each rests on a wide base that curves inward to a thin neck. The necks are encircled with a carved intertwined vine-like motif and they curve slightly outward at the top. The bottle on the left is etched with a delicate fern motif; the one on the right has small flowers etched throughout. Each bottle is about half full of sand and has a cork at its opening. There is a step-like carving on each bottle that protrudes along its side and rises from its base to about two thirds of the way up the bottle.
Macknight Room
Commentary
Sand collected in these bottles reminded Isabella Stewart Gardner of a profoundly moving experience in Egypt. Between 1874 and 1875, she travelled by boat along the Nile and recorded events from the trip in her travel journal. She describes lying alone in the sand near the Pyramids at Gizeh, where “the solemnity and mystery took possession and my heart went out to the Sphinx.”