U Number : 13500
Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number) : 31-17-1
Description (Catalog Card) : Terracotta bedstead. Miniature. Fragment. Design in relief representing house facade or possibly a door to a shrine (?) with a tripod on either side and a human figure standing on each tripod. The door panel consists of wooden (?) uprights and horizontals which form the frame work and the panel itself is divided at intervals by horizontal bars between which are globular pellets. Between the globules are fine vertical parallel lines. Possibly this is intended to represent a fluted door decorated with circular metal bosses, or the globules may be metal bands interwoven like matting. Design may simply be intended to represent a tasseled rug or matting hung over door-posts. The most obvious interpretation of the designs on either side of the door is to consider them as tripods modelled out of perspective; but it is conceivable that this may be panelling and the figures above perhaps formed a dado running round the facade. As the design is on a bed it is not unreasonable to suppose that we are viewing the door of the haven with eunuchs (?) on either side. Feather-like modelling on one of the figures may indicate the fringe of the skirt. The upright is decorated with the conventional matting design with a star pattern in each corner. [drawing]