Topic: large mystery pot - Islamic or not?

[flann]

Hello
Lovely large mystery pot - Islamic world ? Hares 3. Might be deer. Pretty old. All ideas welcome !!
Gemm

[flann]

Hello
I have added a close up picture, my apologies for the very short initial post, but have had trouble uploading.
All the best
Gem

[keith]

Hello Gemm,welcome to the board,I think it looks Islamic also,I don't suppose there are any marks on the base?

[Anne]

Hi Gemm, and welcome. I'm completely clueless about your pot - what size is it please?

[flann]

Hello
Thanks so much for your interest. I have knocked myself out researching this one !!! I have lots of info and no real conclusions at all. I love this pot which I got last year but it is very hard to ID.The lady who sold it said do you think its african ? I said truthfully I had no idea !! She got it from an elderly lady so it dates to early 2othc at least. The decoration is painted over the glaze, where the glaze is flaked it looks a greyish brown body. No glaze inside, no foot rim at all, base unglazed and slightly rounded, no makers marks. Pot is about 18 inches high. All the animals - hares ? deer ? - are slightly different. They have seeds ? pomegranates ? on them and the white paint is crazed a bit. Three animals in three sections with black scrolls dividing them. Their tails are like the persian saz leaves. I wondered if anybody had seen anything like it on their travels ?
All the best
Gem

[Anne]

It reminds me of this by Hugh West http://www.bidgoods.co.uk/Details-Page.php?StockID=177 but the resemblance is probably accidental.  I'm still looking for something else like yours to compare it with.

[flann]

Hi All
I am now pretty certain that this pot is MEXICAN !!!! Not Islamic at all. It seems to be a type of ware that is burnished - polished with stone - not glazed, and they make this shape exactly in western mexico, and names I have come up with are Tonala Brunido, the strange animals appear on lots of Mexican pottery have seen lots from about the 20's onward but the designs are more modern somehow than this. This pot is handmade Native AmericanI would think because it seems to have been cooked in an old wood kiln I have read this makes fire clouds or dark patches on the vessels and underneath what I thought was glaze there they are, dark clouds. Still don't know how old it is or who - what people - made it, but think am on the right lines. At least in the right country. Any old Mexican pottery fans out there ?
All the best
Gem

[Anne]

Rose is quite good on Native American pottery, but she's not been around much of late. I'll see if I can find her for you.