- Title
- Cupboard Door
- Date Made
- second half of 13th century
- Medium
- Wood, carved ivory, and marquetry
- Dimensions
- 36 x 10 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (91.44 x 27.31 x 3.81 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2002.1.31
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Islamic
- Curatorial Notes
Ivory inlays were frequently combined with wood in the production of furniture and architectural fittings in late medieval Egypt. This elaborate method of fabrication, which used costly ivory and rare woods like ebony, required that individual elements, often of minute size, be cut, carved with intricate motifs, and then carefully assembled like a mosaic to form a larger unit of generally geometric design. It is difficult to say exactly how the present door functioned, but most likely it was one of a pair, perhaps for a cupboard set into the wall, in either a religious or a secular building.
