Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl
Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl

Colima Blackware Frog Effigy Bowl

17840

$1,100.00
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Protoclassic Period, ca. 200 BCE–300 CE

Hand modeled in dark, heavily burnished earthenware fired to a deep blackware finish through reduction firing, the low, compressed bowl form encircled by a fluted collar band and set with a modeled frog's head projecting from the rim, its haunches and forelimbs rendered in low relief around the shoulder as though the amphibian were caught mid-crouch beneath the vessel's broad girth. The interior retains a wide, gently sloping floor consistent with use as a serving or ritual offering vessel, while the exterior shows the characteristic soft sheen and micro-crazing of long burial, with scattered calcareous encrustation and mineral deposits typical of West Mexican shaft-tomb contexts.

Frog and toad imagery recurs throughout Colima iconography as an emblem of fertility, water, and transformation, and the choice to integrate the effigy into the vessel's rim and body rather than as a free-standing figure reflects a well-established Colima convention of animating utilitarian forms. 

Size 9-1/4 in. (23.5 cm)  width x 3-1/2 in. (8.9 cm) height

 Condition: Intact with only minor surface abrasion and no evident restoration, the blackware surface retaining strong luster across the rim and shoulder.

Comparable frog effigy vessels from Colima are held in the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 1979.206.332) and in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum (object no. 172:1972), both affirming the enduring popularity of the amphibian motif in West Mexican ceramic art. 


Ex Doral FL Collector.

Every object is guaranteed authentic and as described, and has been legally acquired and imported in accordance with U.S. and applicable foreign regulations on the movement and sale of antiquities. A signed certificate of authenticity with a description and photograph accompanies this object. Any restoration is described on the invoice.

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