Colima Red-Slipped Globular Olla

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima. A hand-built earthenware olla with a full, nearly spherical body that rises to a short, concave neck and an everted, rolled rim. A broad band of red slip encircles the neck and upper shoulder and ends in a crisp line where the swelling body takes over. Below it, the buff-orange surface keeps the soft sheen of burnishing. Smoky fire clouds from an open firing drift across the lower body, a chance signature of the kiln-less firing that gives each vessel its own complexion. The rounded base has no foot, so the jar was made to sit in a ring or nest in sand or earth. The form is the plain, capable workhorse of Colima ceramics, likely made to hold water or food, and possibly also deposited as a tomb offering. Colima ceramics belong to the West Mexican shaft tomb tradition, named for the deep vertical shafts and side chambers cut into volcanic tuff in the modern states of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit. Families placed the dead in these chambers with ceramic vessels and figures, and much of what survives from the tradition comes from these burial contexts. Colima potters are best known for burnished red-orange slips and for vessels modeled as dogs, gourds, squash, and human figures. Plain globular ollas like this one served the same household and funerary needs as the modeled pieces, and their simple profiles show the same feeling for volume. A slipped band at the neck, set against a lighter body, is a restrained way of decorating that comes up again and again in the region's utilitarian wares. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 205754

Estimate:£186.42

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