Mississippian Pottery Bottle with Four Modeled Faces, Effigy Vessel

拍品描述

Native American, Mississippian culture, ca. 1200–1500 CE. A globular earthenware jug rising to a tall, slightly flaring neck, its swelling shoulder punctuated by four modeled faces set at the cardinal points. Each visage is rendered with economy: small applied lugs pinched into brows and noses, with shallow punctations marking eyes and mouths, lending the vessel the watchful quality of a sentinel circling its own circumference. The clay reads in muted gray and warm earth tones, the surface scumbled with fine pitting and the soft abrasions of long burial. Hand-built and likely shell-tempered in the manner characteristic of late Mississippian potters of the central and lower Mississippi Valley, the form belongs to a long tradition of effigy vessels in which the jar itself becomes a body, a head, or a gathering of spirits. Four-faced jars are uncommon and resonant: the cardinal arrangement evokes directional cosmology, with each face perhaps acknowledging a quarter of the world, a wind, or an ancestral presence. Such vessels likely accompanied feasting, ritual libation, or interment, mediating between the living community and the powers that sustained it. The Mississippian tradition, flourishing across the Southeast and Midwest from roughly the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries, produced some of the most sophisticated ceramic sculpture north of Mesoamerica. This jug, modest in pretension yet deliberate in its quadripartite gaze, carries the quiet authority of that legacy. Size: 8.6" H x 7.9" Diam (21.8 cm H x 20.1 cm Diam). SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).For those not using LiveAuctioneers' Live Ship program, Artemis Fine Arts offers expert in-house packing and worldwide shipping. With over 20 years of experience, our team provides careful, reliable, and affordable service. For a quick quote on this lot, please contact support@artemisfinearts.com prior to the auction, or call 720-890-7700. PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception. Item #203142

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