Colima Redware Tripod Rattle Vessel with Hollow Pellet Legs

Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Colima. A tripod rattle vessel with a rounded body and a flaring neck that rises to an everted rim. The body sits on three swollen, hollow legs. Each leg holds loose clay pellets, and the jar still rattles when shaken, so it makes sound as well as holding things. A burnished terracotta-red slip covers the outside and the inside of the neck. Its warmth is broken by dark smoky fire clouds, the marks of open-air firing. Thin white mineral deposits lie across the surface. The profile is plain and the legs are rounded, with almost no added decoration. Colima potters often let form and slip carry the design in just this way. The vessel may have been used in ceremonies or placed in a tomb. Hollow tripod supports with pellets inside are a well-known feature of Colima pottery from the West Mexican shaft tomb tradition. In this tradition, families were buried in chambers cut deep into volcanic rock at the bottom of vertical shafts. Ceramic vessels and figures were placed beside the dead. The rattling legs turned a jar into an instrument. Scholars often link this sound to ritual and to the shamanic practices suggested by other shaft tomb imagery, though what any one vessel was used for is still a matter of interpretation. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 205735

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