Southwestern US, Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, ca. 1000 to 1250 CE. A nice small example of a negative-resist painted bowl from the Black-on-White tradition, with a round white interior base and an exterior with no background, but white painted lines in a similar pattern. This is part of the Mimbres (and larger Mogollon) tradition of iron-based, mineral-painted, decorated pottery. Although much of Mimbres pottery has zoomorphic decoration, there is also some like this that has geometric decoration. Fascinatingly, these geometric designs seem to have been inspired by Southwestern landscape imagery. For example, the triangular designs here might echo slanting geologic formations on the desert. The Mimbres people occupied the mountain and river valleys of southwestern New Mexico; the name we know them by is from the Spanish word for the willows that grew alongside the river valleys. The artists responsible for creating pottery vessels like this were women, and many Mimbres women have been found in burials accompanied by pottery making tools. Size: 6.25" W x 3.5" H (15.9 cm x 8.9 cm)

Provenance: Ex-Adeon Gallery, Chicago, IL, acquired prior to 1970.

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