Bolivian Pottery

[jmaduzia]

This piece of pottery was given to me by a friend who travelled to Bolivia several times on business. He purchased this pot from diggers in the area. The animal painted on the front resembles a Jaguar, and the one painted on the back of the pot is a bird I believe. Anyone have knowledge as to what culture this type pottery would be associated with? Also, could it be an authentic piece? Any info would be appreciated, thanks.

[Steve Valentine]

You need to let Joshua Ream take a look at it. He is the man when it come to South American artifacts.

[joshuaream]

Johnny,

That's an interesting piece. Let me look through some books and see if I can come up with something of that style.

I don't recognize the form but Peru & Bolivia are two places where I am not great at style and culture identification outside of a couple of major traditions. That said, the bottom looks like a northern coastal Peruvian Moche face, but the top and painting look like Southern Peruvian material. It doesn't really look like any of the major Bolivian stuff I've seen (Inca or Tiwanaku).

A lot of middle men in the 80's would take two broken pieces of similar size and marry them together creating hybrid pieces that look authentic and can have lots of patina.

If you feel the inside, is it smooth or rough? If you carefully lift the piece by the rim and flick it with you fingernail, does in have a sharp ring sound or a dull thud?

[gpblood]

Beautiful vessel ,
Thanks for letting us see it !!
GB

[jmaduzia]

Originally Posted by joshuaream

If you feel the inside, is it smooth or rough? If you carefully lift the piece by the rim and flick it with you fingernail, does in have a sharp ring sound or a dull thud?

Thanks for the reply Josh, I appreciate it. The inside of the pot is not glossy smooth, sort of like the feel of fine grit sandpaper. I held it by the rim and flicked it with a fingernail, the sound was not really sharp or really dull, sort of in between. I've included 3 more photo's of the pot, one showing the inside markings, one of a knick in the rim possibly from a diggers tool and one of the back of the pot. The little yellow spots in the knick on the rim sparkle like gold flecks. You mentioned possibly Moche associated, I recall seeing photo's of some Moche pottery very similar to this type with similar designs on them.

[jmaduzia]

Josh, here's a better photo showing the gold flecks in the knicked rim. These gold flecks are throughout the pot.

[TxHeadhunter]

Really cooool!!! Hard to tell if it's the real deal. I noticed from my adventures to Central America that the local natives made many many pottery pieces and sold them as authentic to unsuspecting gringos like myself . I was much younger then and fell for their shenanigans. Real or not they are super cool!

[drdave514]

There are so many tourist pieces that come up and considering the beauty of that piece I will be amazed if it's ancient. Though I very much hope it is. Either way, that thing is awesome.