Native 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 base. On the handle and body is a complex design of interlocking triangular and stepped patterns, perhaps meant to evoke the shape of cliff dwellings, with two bands of these "steps" surrounded by tight horizontal lines that wrap around the body and form thick borders. Size: 4.5" W x 4.75" H (11.4 cm x 12.1 cm)
Vessels from this tradition 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. Largely, these 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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#147985
Condition
Intact and in a beautiful state of preservation, with the pigment still sharp and clear over the entire body. Nice deposits, mainly on interior. Old collection number on underside.