Colima Fluted Vessel, Comala Style, Protoclassic, 100 BC - AD 250

Sidney Newman, Los Angeles
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from the above on April 16, 1968

Inventoried by Hasso von Winning, March 28, 1970, no. 13

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles, Companions of the Dead: Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, October 11 - November 27, 1983

Jacki Gallagher, Companions of the Dead: Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, Los Angeles, 1983, p. 77, fig. 95

Within the corpus of Comala phase phytomorphic vessels, fluted gourds and pumpkins were some of the most popular vegetal forms, given that cucurbita were a major food source next to maize. The vessels were typically modeled to float just above ground level on the tripod supports of parrots nibbling in the sides. The realistic forms of plants and various animals, as well as the distinctive red slip, are considered indicators of the influence and contact from the Chorrera people of Ecuador.

For highly similar examples see Holsbeke and Arnaut, Offerings for a New Life, 1998, fig. 40, and Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico, 1998, p. 213, fig. 21.