Pre-Columbian, Highlands (Chiapas, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador), Maya Late Classic Period, ca. 600 CE. A pretty, elegant orangeware plate with a painted image of a lord in tondo ringed by glyphs. The color scheme is classically Mayan, red and black on the bright orange background, with the glyphs painted in smooth, confidently painted, fine-line black pigment. Glyphs on a vessel rim often formed the name of the person who owned the vessel or who had commissioned it. The lord is shown standing, with his arms extended, and a massive belt that was worn to play the sacred ballgame. Huge, long feathers stream from his clothing. Size: 11" W x 2.75" H (27.9 cm x 7 cm)

Painted Mayan pottery like this was used for feasting, ritual purposes, and as prestigious gifts given to emphasize the power of the giver and bind the recipient to them through a form of purchased loyalty. Maya kings and queens might give them to local governors. The artists who created them were also often minor royalty or nobility, especially the ones who could paint glyphs - literacy seems to have been reserved for the Mayan elite. The image of the lord ready for the ballgame may reference the processions that were held by the sponsors of the game prior to its brutal play, when feathers were probably not worn.

Elaborate plates like this one were designed to be instantly distinguishable from those used for everyday eating or drinking - not just in decoration, but also in quantity produced, making these a much rarer find than a piece of domestic pottery. Instead, a bowl like this one would be ritually "sacrificed" by having a hole put through its center; it would then be placed into a tomb as an offering.

Provenance: private D. C. collection, California, USA; D. C. is an Emmy Award winning Hollywood writer and Executive Producer, collected before 2000

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#126456

Well done and unobtrusive repairs from approximately four pieces. A "kill hole" in the center. Very nice remaining pigment with clear motifs.