Colima Redware Squash Effigy Olla with Eight VegiformsPre-Columbian, Mexico, Colima,...
Colima Redware Squash Effigy Olla with Eight VegiformsPre-Columbian, Mexico, Colima, ca. 100 BCE – 250 CE. A burnished redware olla whose swollen body resolves into a bowl cradling eight upright vegiforms, each lobe defined by a modeled seam of fine notched ticking. The globular shoulder rises to a short neck and a broad, everted disc rim, and the lower register is banded like the rim of a vessel holding the produce above. Faint circular traces of black resist decoration survive on the lobes and the lower bowl. Squash, gourds, and other cultivated fruits were favored subjects among West Mexican potters, whose shaft-tomb assemblages paired vessels of food and drink with the dead, and this olla likely served that same funerary provisioning role before burial. Size: 8.75" Diam x 12" H (22.2 cm Diam x 30.5 cm H).
Colima ceramics belong to the shaft-tomb tradition of West Mexico, a cultural horizon spanning Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit in which the dead were interred in deep vertical shafts opening into lateral chambers. Those chambers were furnished with modeled vessels, dogs, warriors, and musicians, an assemblage read as provisioning for the afterlife rather than as narrative sculpture. The polished red slip, achieved by burnishing the leather-hard surface with a smooth stone before firing, is the signature Colima finish, and the black resist patterning seen faintly here was applied with an organic mask that repelled smudge or pigment during a secondary firing, leaving a pale ghost where it burned away. Vegetal effigies, squashes and gourds foremost, reflect the agricultural base of the region and its preoccupation with abundance.
Provenance: Private New England collection, acquired from Robert Dowling Tribal Art, from the Robert Berg collection, San Diego, CA., 1972.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73032Five large original pieces reattached in the rim, otherwise intact.
Colima Redware Squash Effigy Olla with Eight VegiformsPre-Columbian, Mexico, Colima, ca. 100 BCE – 250 CE. A burnished redware olla whose swollen body resolves into a bowl cradling eight upright vegiforms, each lobe defined by a modeled seam of fine notched ticking. The globular shoulder rises to a short neck and a broad, everted disc rim, and the lower register is banded like the rim of a vessel holding the produce above. Faint circular traces of black resist decoration survive on the lobes and the lower bowl. Squash, gourds, and other cultivated fruits were favored subjects among West Mexican potters, whose shaft-tomb assemblages paired vessels of food and drink with the dead, and this olla likely served that same funerary provisioning role before burial. Size: 8.75" Diam x 12" H (22.2 cm Diam x 30.5 cm H).
Colima ceramics belong to the shaft-tomb tradition of West Mexico, a cultural horizon spanning Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit in which the dead were interred in deep vertical shafts opening into lateral chambers. Those chambers were furnished with modeled vessels, dogs, warriors, and musicians, an assemblage read as provisioning for the afterlife rather than as narrative sculpture. The polished red slip, achieved by burnishing the leather-hard surface with a smooth stone before firing, is the signature Colima finish, and the black resist patterning seen faintly here was applied with an organic mask that repelled smudge or pigment during a secondary firing, leaving a pale ghost where it burned away. Vegetal effigies, squashes and gourds foremost, reflect the agricultural base of the region and its preoccupation with abundance.
Provenance: Private New England collection, acquired from Robert Dowling Tribal Art, from the Robert Berg collection, San Diego, CA., 1972.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73032Five large original pieces reattached in the rim, otherwise intact.
