Malian Ceramic Vessel

A shiny red collar sits on top, and below it the pot goes plain and dusty, like someone who dressed only the visible half.

This vessel is Djenne, from Mali, West Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is impressed and burnished terra cotta. Potters in the Inner Niger Delta, generally women, have long built large storage and water jars by hand and decorated them by rolling cords or carved tools over the wet clay. A burnished red band circles the shoulder, edged with tiny stamped dots under a ribbed rim. Below it, rows of fine chevron impressions fade into the pale, mottled lower body, darkened in patches by firing. It is 17 inches high and 19 in diameter.

Round, practical and quietly proud of its upper half.