Bambara Ceremonial Vessel with Looped Handles and Painted Symbols

A bird in white, wings up, walking across a pot on two small feathered feet.

This ceremonial vessel with looped handles and painted symbols is Bambara, from Mali in West Africa, and dates to the early 20th century. It is terra cotta and pigment. Among the Bambara, as in much of West Africa, women potters made jars like this for storing water and grain, and some served in ceremonies at home or at a shrine. A flared neck with white painted bands opens above a round, red-brown body. Two looped handles stand out at the shoulders, and a narrow foot lifts it all. Twenty and a half inches high and 18 wide.

The bird has held that pose for a good long while.