It’s not shiny, but this is a rare survival of an impression in plaster, an echo of an important lost historical document. Measuring 15 cm at the max. diameter, it retains the surface of an imperial Ptolemaic portrait relief likely wrought in precious metal in the late 4th century B.C.
Plaster doesn’t survive in great quantity from antiquity, as it’s liable to shattering or squashing and tends to end up powdered, rotted and generally trashed. This one escaped relatively unscathed thanks to the arid Egyptian climate, although its exact context is not known…it was a gift of a 19th century Egyptian king to the Alexandrian museum (cute symmetry in itself, eh?).
The prodigious protruding eyes and fleshy facial contours of both figures are clear indications that early Ptolemaic royalty is shown, and scholars typically gravitate towards identifying these two as the great progenitor Ptolemy I and Berenike I, his second wife. And if this is the case, allow yourself a frisson of excitement as her portraits are rare indeed.
Why exactly the plaster impression of the metal roundel was taken is unclear, as is what type of object the original might have been. Far too few such things survive. Most interesting is the late great Ptolemy’s nose, which seems to have received a little tweak after the impression was made, shaved down a bit with the original bulbous outline leaving only a shadow on his queen’s cheek…
