Because of its small scale (less than thirty inches
high), this wooden chair was considered by
Carter to
have been used by
Tutankhamun as a child. The death
of the king at so young an age might have been the
impetus for the inclusion among his funerary
equipment of a number of items that were used during
his early childhood. That would also explain the
placement of a
bracelet encrusted with a large lapis
lazuli scarab among the personal objects stored in a
chest in the Treasury.
In form, the chair, which came from the Antechamber,
is similar to contemporaneous examples. It is almost
identical in size to a small
chair of Sitamun,
although the decoration on her chair is much more
elaborate than on Tutankhamun's chair. The legs are
feline in form, and the back is braced by three
vertical supports. Most of the wood is ebony, but
the slats of the seat appear to be made of rosewood,
and this may be, therefore, one of the earliest
extant example of the wood. The back, like that of
the
inlaid chair, has vertical panels of ivory. Two
horizontal bands of stylized floral petals, also
made of ivory, surmount the panels. Several rows of
ivory and ebony inlays arranged in a geometric
pattern border the entire back.
The arms have panels of carved and gilded gesso.
Decorated with a recumbent oryx on each of the other
sides, the panels depict a floral motif within a
border on the inner sides. Carved ivory terminals in
the shape of lotuses serve as crosspiece between the
legs of the chair. In addition, vertical and
diagonal pieces brace the legs. Unlike the inlaid
chair, the
golden throne, and the carved wooden
chair, the child's chair has no inscription
anywhere.