Casas Grandes Polychrome Jar with Later Basket Handle and Cup

Pre-Columbian, Northern Mexico, Chihuahua, Casas Grandes. A hand-built earthenware jar with a full, rounded body and a wide, slightly constricted mouth, painted in red and black on a warm buff ground. A dark band rings the shoulder. Below it, vertical black framing lines split the body into panels, and each panel holds bold stepped and interlocking rectilinear shapes: red hooks and open squares sit against black stepped forms, set out with a confident, slightly irregular hand. This tight geometric vocabulary, with its play of positive and negative space, is the hallmark of the Paquime painted tradition. Three arched handles rise from the rim and meet beneath a small open cup, turning the jar into a basket-like form. That superstructure is probably a later addition, though, so the painted jar beneath it is the heart of the piece. Casas Grandes takes its name from the great site of Paquime in northwestern Chihuahua, which flourished during the Medio period. It was a major trading center linking the Greater Southwest with western Mesoamerica. Its potters made a large family of painted wares, usually red and black on a cream or buff ground. Their designs favored stepped frets, interlocking scrolls, and panels set off by bold framing lines. Since the 1970s, the village of Mata Ortiz nearby has revived the tradition, and that revival has made Paquime design known to a whole new generation of collectors. Item # 205733

Estimate:$250

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