Card/Transcription No.: 351-5

No. 351.

This faldstool while retaining its folding shape is rigid and
has acquired a back. Its ample curved seat fashioned in the
semblance of flexible leather, is made of ebony inlaid with
irregular shaped pieces of ivory imitating the motley markings
of a pie-bald hide, the centre, however, is ornamented with a
series of small rectangular panels of ivory stained to
represent various other hides as well as that of the cheetah.
The under surface of the seat is lined with red leather (upon
gesso), and attached to the corners are four imitation limbs
of a hide, twisted round the legs of the chair. The chair is
supported by cross-legs of folding stool type, rigid, of ebony
carved and inlaid in the shape of heads of geese. These
cross-legs and their stretchers are partially bound with thin sheet
gold. Between the stretchers and the lower foot-bars is an
openwork gilt wood ornament, symbolizing the union of the "Two
lands", the greater part of which was wrenched away by the
dynastic tomb-robbers. The upright slightly curved back-panel
of the chair, is partially covered with gold and inlaid with
faience, glass and natural stones. The design incorporates the
Aten disc and names, a frieze of solar-uraei, the prenomen and
nomen of the king, and the Nekhebet vulture holding
shen-symbols and
single ostrich-feather fans. Below is a series of
rails and stiles enclosing ivory and ebony panels inscribed
with various designations of the king: an ornament largely
inspired by the recessed panelling common to the outer walls
of earlier and contemporaneous buildings, and actually copied
on the lower part of the design here.