**Originally Listed At $1000**

Pre-Columbian, Ecuador, Chorrera culture, ca. 800 to 500 BCE. A hand-built pottery bowl of ceremonial form depicting a stylized, minimalist owl. The avian vessel exhibits a rounded body with a thin, circular rim, a wing folded inwards on either side, a fan-shaped tail, and a raised spherical head bearing enormous eyes and a petite beak. The burnished surfaces are enveloped with russet red slip that creates a dignified presentation. Owls are nocturnal hunters, and associated with the underworld in many Pre-Columbian cultures, their haunting calls at night were often omens of death or believed to be the embodiment of spirits. Size: 7.5" L x 5" W x 3.5" H (19 cm x 12.7 cm x 8.9 cm)

Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-Hacinto Santana collection, New York, USA, from the mid-1990s

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#173293

Minor chips and abrasions, otherwise intact. Remains of root marks on interior. Nice burnished red pigment and earthen deposits. Old inventory label on interior.