Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/409

 Glass and Pottery. 37 ment.' On the backs of several plaques there are marks which seem to be rotation numbers. They are figured in the centre of Perring's sketch. Other bricks from the same doorway are covered with an almost black enamel. They form the horizontal mouldings between the rows of upright bricks, and are decorated with a sort of arrow-head pattern. This fashion endured throughout the Theban period. The most important relic of it which we now possess is from the decoration of a temple built by Rameses III. to the north-west of Memphis, near the modern Tell-el-Yahoudeh, upon the railway from Cairo to Ismailia. The building itself w^as constructed of crude brick, the walls being lined with enamelled tiles. The ^^^^Wiipl WMMM Figs. 300 — 302. — Enamelled plaque from the Stepped Pyramid. royal ovals and titles were cut in the earth before it was fired, and afterwards filled up with an enamel so tinted as to stand out in strong relief from the colour of the brick. Other tiles represent African and Asiatic prisoners. The figures are in relief; the enamel is parti-coloured, the hair of the prisoners being black, their carnations yellowish-brown, and certain details of their costume being accentuated by other hues. Dr. Birch reproduces some of these painted reliefs and compares them to the figurines rustiqties of Bernard Palissy.^ The principal fragments of this 1 We owe our ability to give these curious details to the kindness of M. Conze and the ofificers of the Egyptian museum at Berlin. One of the original fragments brought home by Lepsius was lent to us. - Birch, Ancient Pottery, p. 50.