A painted earthenware jar from the Peruvian Andes, with a pear-shaped body, a tall flaring neck, a small flat base and two upright tube lugs on the shoulder for a carrying cord. It is painted in brown and red on the buff clay with a bird with a long neck and spread wings on one side, a stylised flower on a stem on the other, and wavy bands around the neck.
The lugs and overall shape carry on the Inca jar tradition, but the decoration does not: Inca potters painted fine geometric patterns, while flowers like this one, and birds drawn this way, came into Andean pottery after the Spanish conquest, from European textiles, tiles and printed patterns. Jars like this were made by Andean potters for chicha and water through the late colonial period and into the 1800s.
Condition: A broken section of the rim has been reattached, with a chip. Wear to the paint and surface consistent with age.
