Native American, Southwestern United States, Colorado, Mesa Verde, Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloan), ca. 1075 to 1250 CE. A very fine example of a classic Puebloan artifact, this is a ceramic mug with a flat base, a tall body with a tapered shoulder, a thin rim, and an applied strap handle arching between rim and midsection. The white-slipped body is elegantly decorated with repeated triangular spirals. Vessels like this one were made from a gray or white paste 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 people 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. Size: 4.5" W x 3.5" H (11.4 cm x 8.9 cm)
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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#147763
Condition
Small surface fracture on underside; this is likely from the firing process and does not threaten the integrity of the mug. The rim features some small chips and losses. The motifs are nicely preserved though much of the original pigment is faded in places. Light deposits on the surface. Old museum collection number on underside.