Advanced Search 
Cylinder vase
Maya
Late Classic Period
A.D. 680–750
Place of Manufacture: El Petén, Guatemala, Nakbé, El Mirador Basin
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: black and red on cream slip paint
Dimensions
16 x 13.5 cm (6 5/16 x 5 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1189
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
Catalogue Raisonné
MS1833; Kerr 955
DescriptionCodex-style vase painted with a hieroglyphic text recounting a mythological dynasty of rulers of the snake-head polity. The vessel has three tiny nubbin supports. Much of the imagery has been overpainted or newly painted in modern times, the latter being a copy of one of the other "dynasty vases" that recount this same mythological sequence of rulers. The text ends with the last part of the Primary Standard Sequence, naming the vessel and its patron/owner.
ProvenanceBetween about 1974 and 1981, probably purchased in Guatemala by John B. Fulling (b. 1924 – d. 2005), The Art Collectors of November, Inc., Pompano Beach, FL; May 20, 1987, sold by John B. Fulling to Landon T. Clay, Boston; 1988, year-end gift of Landon Clay to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 25, 1989)
NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.
NOTE: This is one in a group of Maya artifacts (MFA accession nos. 1988.1169 – 1988.1299) known as the “November Collection” after John Fulling’s company, the Art Collectors of November, Inc. John Fulling sold this group of objects to MFA donor Landon Clay in 1987, and they were given to the Museum the following year.
Evidence suggests that John Fulling built the November Collection from sources in Guatemala between 1974 and 1981. Only a portion of what he acquired during this time came to the MFA in 1988. It is not possible to determine precisely which objects were acquired when or from whom.