Bas-relief of a portion of a frieze with a thymiaterion and two temple slave females carrying baskets in terra cotta

The carved scene presents a ritual context: the thymiaterion suggests a ceremonial offering, while the two attendant figures, identified as temple slaves, carry baskets that likely contain offerings or ritual implements. Their depiction reflects the ancient practice of involving subordinate figures in sacred rites, offering insight into the social hierarchy and religious customs represented in the original sculptural program.

Laffon employed the mid‑nineteenth‑century wet‑plate collodion process, capturing the relief’s low relief surface with sharp tonal contrast. The photograph emphasizes the shallow depth of the bas‑relief, rendering the incised details of the thymiaterion and the figures’ drapery. The composition isolates a portion of the larger frieze, focusing the viewer’s attention on the ritual objects and attendant figures.

The image entered the V&A’s collection shortly after its creation, when the museum purchased a batch of 500 photographs from Laffon in 1864 through the agent Monsieur E. Cappe. These works documented objects from the Campana Collection, then housed in the Musée Napoléon III (now the Louvre). The photograph has remained in the museum’s archives, exemplifying its early commitment to photographic documentation.

The V&A began acquiring photographs in 1852 and was the first British museum to exhibit them in 1858, guided by founding director Henry Cole’s belief in photography’s educational value. Female photographers such as Laffon and Isabel Agnes Cowper contributed significantly to this mission, providing visual resources for artists, students, and museum staff during a period when photographic reproduction was emerging as a scholarly tool.