Nupe Ceramic Storage Vessel

A stippled little doorway sits on the shoulder, opening onto nothing.

This storage vessel is Nupe, from Nigeria in West Africa, and dates to the late 19th or early 20th century. It is incised and painted terra cotta. Nupe households used jars like this for water and grain, and the potters, mostly women, favored wide bellies that hold a great deal. Bands of dots, rope-like ridges and vertical stripes crowd the upper half. A small diamond lattice sits at the widest point, with pale swags looping below it. Fine combed lines cover the lower body. Twenty and a half inches high and eighteen and a half across.

The bottom half is plainer. Somebody knew when to stop.