**Originally Listed At $400**

Pre-Columbian, southern Mexico and Guatemala, Maya Late Classic Period, ca. 550 to 900 CE. A fascinating tripod cylinder vessel with rattle legs. Around the body are three registers: glyphoids around the rim and the base just above the legs, and, in the center, a wider series of repeated motifs: a lord with an enormous feathered headdress and a large cross-hatched symbol. Cross hatching is associated with the glyph for "planting", tz'ap, but may also indicate a net, perhaps for fishing or hunting. Size: 5.3" W x 6" H (13.5 cm x 15.2 cm)

For the Maya, extraordinary painted ceramic vases like this example were gifted to elite individuals, akin to the gifts exchanged between high profile dignitaries today. Vases were a functional gift, created by artist/scribes who came from elite families and who took pains to recreate the stories of Mayan mythology and religion as well as to depict royal and godly personages in their artwork. This artwork reinforced the ruling ideology and reminded the viewer of what was valuable in Mayan society. Today, they teach us about the stories that were important to the Maya and also give us clues to how elite people lived and dressed. Scholars have painstakingly worked to decipher the meaning of the iconography and glyphs painted on cylinder jars and we know much more about them than we did even twenty years ago.

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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#126502

Repaired from two pieces. Repairs are well done and unobtrusive. Root marks on interior and manganese deposits over much of surface. Nice remaining pigment with most of the motifs visible. Rattle still functional.