Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A hand-built and highly burnished pottery jar of sizable form covered in lustrous red slip. Resembling a wide, voluminous squash, the compressed spherical vessel presents with rounded shoulder and base, a gadrooned body with vertical ribs, a squat neck, and a flared rim, all atop a trio of stylized parrots that double as the vessel's legs. Each avian form is defined with incised and pierced ovoid eyes, curved beaks, and incised and modeled wings upon a plump body that resolves to a tapered tail. The slipped and burnished surface is truly magnificent. Moreover, art imitates life in this ceramic vessel! After all, the indigenous of Mexico used hollowed gourds for storing and serving food and drink. Furthermore, the iconography of piece is quite poignant as squashes and parrots were both symbols of fertility and abundance. Size: 16" W x 10.2" H (40.6 cm x 25.9 cm)

In the Pre-Columbian world, birds were highly symbolic and favorite iconographical subjects in art. As sky animals, they were associated with the celestial sun and moon and were believed to act as messengers between humankind and their deities. Parrots were and continue to be revered by the ancients of the Americas. Their brilliant plumage and ability to fly high above the tree line made them ideal incarnations of the sky deities, thought to be endowed with supernatural powers of celestial origin.

Cf. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1979.206.350

Provenance: ex-private Bishop Family Trust collection, the Trust of the late Bill Bishop, a noted antiquarian with shops in Scottsdale, Arizona and Allenspark, Colorado, USA, acquired before 2010

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#172972

Minor resurfacing along lateral edges of avian legs where some stable fissures are present. One stable pressure fissure within neck that is not visible along the exterior. Minor abrasions and nicks to rim, body, base, and legs, otherwise intact and excellent. Nice preservation to avian details and ample manganese deposits throughout. Old inventory label beneath body.