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Cylinder vase
Maya
Late Classic Period
A.D. 680–750
Place of Manufacture: Department of El Petén, Guatemala, El Mirador Basin
Medium/Technique
Earthenware: black and red on cream slip paint
Dimensions
13.4 x 12.6 cm (5 1/4 x 4 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Landon T. Clay
Accession Number1988.1272
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
The text on this chocolate-drinking vessel recounts an ancient, probably mythological dynasty of rulers of the "snake-head" polity. The kings of Calakmul, Mexico, took their names and their authority from this ancient lineage. Because of its politically powerful and epic text, this vessel likely was a special feasting gift.
Catalogue Raisonné
MS1835, Kerr 1457
DescriptionCodex-style cylinder vase painted with the mythological dynastic sequence of rulers of the snake-head polity, identified as Calakmul, Mexico during the Classic period (A.D. 250-850). The dates of the accessions of the rulers recorded on this vase, however, are not those found in the stone inscriptions at Calakmul that feature the same rulers. Further, the pottery versions of the dates of these accessions are not viable in the Classic period calendrical system, which indicates that these are accessions that took place in mythological time. The vase has three small tau-shaped supports. Portions of the imagery had been in-painted in modern times (visible in some published phtographs of the vase), but this minor repainting was removed in 1997 (the photographs attache to this record were taken after the removal of the modern in-painting).
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.