Images(5)

Cylinder vase

AD 757-767

Place of ManufactureIk' polity, Motul de San José area, Department of El Petén, Guatemala

Medium/TechniqueEarthenware with red, orange, pink, and black slip paint on a white ground

DimensionsOverall: 10.5 x 10.2 cm (4 1/8 x 4 in.)

Credit LineGift of Timothy Phillips

Accession number2009.318

On View

On view

ClassificationsCeramics

Collections

Americas

InscriptionsThe glyphic inscription along the rim describes and dates the accession rite of Yajawte' K'inich, ruler of the Ik' Polity, and additional inscriptions between the figures give the name of an Ik' nobleman, K'inich Lamaw Ek', and identify the artist of the vase, known as the Tuub'al Ajaw ("lord of the Tuub'al place").Provenance1970s, in a collection outside of Guatemala [see note 1]. By 1981, in a collection in New York [see note 2]. By 1987 until at least 1994, Carol Meyer, New York [see note 3]. May 10, 2008, anonymous sale, Skinner, Boston, lot 37, to Timothy Phillips, Boston; 2009, gift of Phillips to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 25, 2009)

NOTES:
[1] Nicholas Hellmuth, who photographed Pre-Columbian objects in collections outside of Latin America, photographed the vase in the 1970s. [2] Justin Kerr photographed it in New York City in 1981 (no. K1463). [3] The vase was on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery during this time.