Lot 117
Pre-Columbian, North to North Central Coast Peru, Chimu, ca. 1200 to 1470 CE. An attractive blackware mold-made stirrup vessel depicting a perched owl with boldly delineated wide eyes, a noble beak, laid back wings, and defined talons - with fine incised marks highlighting these features. Sitting atop the strap handle is a tiny bird. Birds were cherished in the Pre-Columbian world as sky animals associated with the celestial realm -- the sun, the moon, and Venus -- where they were thought to act as messengers between the deities and humankind. Owls, however, being nocturnal birds, were associated with earth, darkness, death, and the underworld. A wonderful example replete with rich iconography as well as a stunning aesthetic. Size: 4.25" L x 6.375" H (10.8 cm x 16.2 cm)
Blackware is the term given to pottery which is black in color due to a firing process rather than the application of black-pigmented paints or slips. We call this process reduction firing, because the amount of oxygen is reduced during the firing. Of course, fire needs oxygen to thrive, so it searches elsewhere finding oxygen in the clay itself, bound in the chemical compounds within. With this, a magical transformation occurs as the chemical formula of the clay changes. The rather beauteous result is that the once red clay becomes black pottery.
Provenance: Ex- Collection of the late Peter Arnovick, San Francisco, CA
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#121099
- Condition: Tiny nicks to rim, peripheries of strap handle, one toe, and one ear. Otherwise minor surface wear with a few scuffs here and there.
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