Lot 313B
Rare Mimbres Black-on-White Pottery Bowl, Figural Family Scene (TLd)
Rare Mimbres Black-on-White Pottery Bowl, Figural Family Scene (TLd)
Starting Bid: $6,000
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Native American, Southwest United States, Anasazi Peoples, Mogollon, Mimbres culture., ca. 1000 - 1150 CE. A rare Mimbres black-on-white pottery bowl presenting a vivid scene of daily life, where a mother amuses an infant with rattles while a man below, likely the father, bends to the careful work of making bow and arrows, an intimate narrative rendered with clarity, confidence, and remarkable humanity. The bowl is hemispherical in form, with a pale, mineral-rich ground and black painted decoration characteristic of Classic Mimbres pottery. Around the interior wall runs a bold geometric band of stepped and hatched motifs, anchoring the composition and guiding the eye inward. At the center, the narrative unfolds across a horizontal axis. Above, the seated female figure raises rattles toward a baby, whose small body is animated with lively gesture. Below, a male figure concentrates on weapon-making, his posture deliberate and his tools clearly articulated. Size: 11.5" W x 4.9" H (29.2 cm x 12.4 cm)
The pairing of figures reflects a favored Mimbres compositional strategy, here adapted to depict family life rather than animals or abstract symbolism. Narrative scenes of human activity are among the most important and least common subjects in Mimbres pottery. While many bowls feature birds, animals, or purely geometric designs, figural and storytelling imagery is unique to the peoples of the Mimbres Valley and appears only during a brief and highly creative period in the early centuries of the second millennium CE. No other Southwestern culture produced ceramic vessels with comparable spontaneity, individuality, or narrative depth.
This bowl retains a centrally placed kill hole, pierced through the base, a powerful marker of its ceremonial role. Mimbres bowls are most often found in subfloor burials, typically one to a burial, placed inverted over the face of the deceased. The meaning of the kill hole remains debated. It may have symbolically released the spirit of the vessel or the soul of the dead, or rendered the object ritually complete and no longer of the everyday world. Its presence here underscores the bowls funerary and spiritual significance. Exceptionally rare in subject, deeply personal in content, and culturally irreplaceable, this bowl stands as a masterwork of Mimbres art. It is not merely a decorated vessel but a visual record of family, labor, and care, preserved across a thousand years through line, gesture, and clay.
This item has been TL (Thermoluminescence) and XRF (X-ray florescence) tested and is shown to be ancient as described with no evidence of modern pigment.
Publication: For a similar example please "Mimbres Mythology: Tales from the Painted Clay" by James R. Cunkle (USA: Golden West Publishers, 2000), cover and figure 157 on page 61.
Provenance: private Denver, Colorado, USA collection
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Item #
201017
- Condition: Kill hole at center. Area of loss to rim as shown. Some small areas of repair to rim and near loss with break lines visible, as well as some tiny chips and stable hairline fissures at rim. Light surface wear commensurate with age. Otherwise, excellent presentation with impressive remaining pigments, detail, and imagery.
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|---|---|---|
| $0 | $749 | $25 |
| $750 | $1,499 | $50 |
| $1,500 | $2,999 | $100 |
| $3,000 | $7,499 | $250 |
| $7,500 | $14,999 | $500 |
| $15,000 + | $1,000 |