Skip to contentSkip to navigation

Ramos Polychrome-style Fish-shaped Jar

Location

MEXICO, CHIHUAHUA

Era

Post-classic period (900-1521)

Title

Ramos Polychrome-style Fish-shaped Jar

Date

1280-1450

Materials

Earthenware, polychrome painted decoration

Dimensions

11 x 20.5 x 13.5 cm

Credits

Gift of Greta L. Finley, inv. 1943.Ac.2

Collection

Archeology and World Cultures

From the thirteenth to fifteenth century, Paquimé, a site located in the north of the Chihuahuan Desert, was at the centre of a vast trading network linking the American southwest to western Mexico. Pottery was decorated with complex figurative and geometric designs. Here, the modelled elements depict a fish, and the stylized painted heads, macaws. Exceptionally in respect to the collection, there is a note indicating the place this object comes from. It is said to have been found in a mound on the ranch of Lord Delaval Beresford (1862-1906) in Los Ojitos. Flora Wolf, Beresford’s life partner for over twenty years, made headlines by daring to go to court to claim her rights as his widow, despite the fact that they had not been legally married and, even more so, given the racist climate of the times, because she was Black.

Add a touch of culture to your inbox
Subscribe to the Museum newsletter

Bourgie Hall Newsletter sign up