A round-bodied earthenware olla with a short flared neck, painted in red with banded lines at the neck and looping scroll designs on the body, and marked with dark fire clouds from an open firing.
It comes with a handwritten letter from a previous owner, who calls it a "Papago wine jug" dug out of a riverbed and puts it at 150 to 200 years old. They bought it around 1970 from a collecting couple who ran a jewelry shop in Cave Creek, Arizona. The Tohono O'odham (formerly called Papago) brewed saguaro-fruit wine in ollas for their summer rain ceremony, a rite still held today.
Condition: Dark fire clouds from the original open firing.
Small white flecks on the neck and shoulder, light wear to the rim.
A small spalled spot and a short surface mark on one side.
