Pre-Columbian, Peru, Inca, ca. 1000 to 1500 CE. We're not sure that this dish had anything to do with courtship and love; however, this piece demonstrates that "the birds and the bees" loomed large for the ancients of the Americas! An outstanding bird-handled polychrome pottery vessel presenting a raised avian head with painted black and white eyes and a bifurcated, pointy beak emerging from one end of the shallow bowl and the bird's stylized tail with concave circles adorning each tailfeather. On the tondo is a central register comprised of repeating concentric black triangular and red diamond shapes against a white ground with a red and black jagged tooth border, each band neatly defined by fine-line bands of black and/or white pigment. Flying toward the bird's head on each side of this central textile-inspired design are ten bees, five on each side, every one meticulously detailed with legs, stingers, eyes, wings, and striped thoraxes. Perhaps this dish was an offering dish used to hold honey. Size: 6.25" L x 8.125" W x 2.5" H (15.9 cm x 20.6 cm x 6.4 cm)

Provenance: private Vaught collection, Atlanta, Georgia USA

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#123142

Head reattached at the neck. Otherwise excellent save minor surface wear.