Large Extremely Rare Chorrera Pottery Snuff Tray

Pre-Columbian, Ecuador, Chorrera culture, ca. 500 BCE. A fascinating, beautiful artifact: a ceramic snuff tray with a perfectly round, cylindrical opening in the center and a matching ceramic lid with a dramatic floral design on its face. The tray is flat and rectangular, with its corners cut in to form half circles. A border of concentric incised lines is around the edge. The lid is divided into quadrants, with repeated abstract motifs, perhaps representing the plant used to create snuff, in relief on the face. Size with lid in place: 16" W (40.6 cm); 16.5" H (41.9 cm) on included custom stand.

Snuff trays were part of the elaborate battery of objects carefully manufactured by ancient Andeans in order to ingest a ground drug known as vilca or huilca, found in southern Peru and Bolivia, and obtained from the beans of the tree Anadenanthera colubrina. We know of these trays from burials, where they were placed as offerings and perhaps to provision the dead alongside inhalation tubes and other paraphernalia. They are made from wood, metal, and clay, and often have fantastical motifs and forms.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-private H. J. Westermann collection, Germany

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#141202

Lid is repaired and restored from two pieces. Tray has been repaired and restored. Both of these appear intact and the restoration is almost impossible to see. Lid is currently held in place using velcro. Light deposits on surface of tray and nice remaining pigment on lid.