Pre-Columbian, Mexico and northern Central America, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 550 to 900 CE. A gorgeous pottery vessel presenting a cylindrical body with straight walls and a circular rim, all sitting upon a flat base. Boasting an intricately incised decorative program, the ancient vessel is adorned with a design in low relief of 2 large, rectangular glyphs that resemble avian heads on the body, each painted with red pigments and placed equidistantly from one another. Lovely, black-painted vertical stripes embellish the remaining exterior of the vessel, while black pigment envelops the rim. Size: 4.8" Diameter x 6.3" H (12.2 cm x 16 cm)

Residue analysis on vessels like this one show that they were used for drinking chocolate, a hugely popular and ritual practice amongst the Maya, especially the elite. Although we know little about the artisans who made vessels like this one, we do know that cylinder jars are often associated with tombs, sometimes ritually broken. Prominent Maya scholar Michael Coe has connected the scenes depicted upon the most important of these vessels with the sixteenth century Maya written epic, the Popol Vuh, which describes Maya religion and mythology, as this one perhaps does.

These ancient glyphs may convey an important date, a secret message, or simply be part of the vessel's aesthetic program. According to Dorie Reents-Budet, "One of the remarkable characteristics of Classic Maya painted pottery is the use of writing as more than simply a way to communicate ideas. As in the Islamic tradition, Maya artists employed calligraphy as a prime design feature and as an integral part of the total composition… The hieroglyphic texts also were used as compositional devices, placed specifically to help define the internal tensions, balances and divisions within the pictorial field." (Dorie Reents-Budet, "Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period," Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1994, page 12)

Provenance: private Hidden Valley Lake, California, USA collection; ex-Leonard Auctions, Addison, Illinois, USA

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#170465

Top half repaired from several pieces with restoration over break lines and restoration and repainting to rim. Some abrasions to interior. Otherwise, excellent with impressively preserved incised detail and liberal remains of pigments.