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USA Domestic: 12/14 for Standard; 12/23 for Express; International: 12/7 for Standard; 12/19 for ExpressNative American, Southwestern USA, Colorado, Anasazi/Ancestral Puebloans, ca. 1200 to 1300 CE. A fine example of a pottery mug made in the Mesa Verde Black-on-White tradition in what is today southwestern Colorado. The body of the mug is a tapering cylinder, with a circular neck and a wide strap handle extending from below the rim to the shoulder. On the handle are complex interlocking linear and geometric motifs, which mirror those found on Anasazi basketry and textiles. Such motifs were likely inspired by the dramatic desert landscape - the Z-shapes here resemble jagged lightning, the dots representing raindrops. Size: 3.75" W x 3.5" H (9.5 cm x 8.9 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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#147762
Condition
Hairline fracture from rim to about one third of the way down the body; otherwise in great condition with nice firing mark, good preservation of motifs, and deposits commensurate with age. Handwritten collection number on underside.