Lot 134G
Native American, Southwestern USA, Colorado, Anasazi/Ancestral Puebloans, ca. 1200 to 1300 CE. A charming mug with interlocking geometric patterns of zigzags, diamonds, squares, and lines, including a thick line horizontally through the center of the motif which may represent a boundary of water - a river through the heart of the motif, which some researchers believe symbolizes the dramatic Southwestern landscape. The black-on-white motifs (which when fired became more ocher yellow-on-white on this example, a relatively rare result of the iron in the black pigment interacting with the heat of the fire) are part of the Mesa Verde tradition. Size: 4.1" W x 3.1" H (10.4 cm x 7.9 cm)
Vessels like this one were made from a gray or white clay with angular fragments of temper and this one has a pearly gray-white slip that was then overpainted with a black pigment made from carbon. They were made by women who lived in cliff dwellings like those seen at Mesa Verde National Park - indeed at the Park, there is a large house containing 94 rooms, a kiva, and a water reservoir, known as Mug House because its European discoverers, Charles Mason and the Wetherill brothers, found three mugs hung in one of the rooms from a rope of woven yucca.
Provenance: ex-Joan Shaw collection, bought in 1971; loaned to the Mesa Verde Museum, 1962-1970; ex-Bill Mitchell collection, Cortez, Colorado, USA, from 1958-1962
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#147765
- Condition: Small repair at rim with a small chip beside it; otherwise the body is in nice condition. Nice firing marks and deposits with some wear to the pigment commensurate with age.
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