Cleveland Museum of Art

Water Transport Jar

Date

1900s

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Nupe-style pottery, unknown female potter

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Nupe, an Islamic people from northern Nigeria, embellish pottery and metalwork with intricate, nonrepresentational patterning. A female potter built this vessel by joining two bowls into a globe shape, then adding the neck. After drying, she used shells to press in designs before burnishing the exterior to a high shine. Finally, she fired the gourd-shaped vessel in a furnace. The patterns beautify and allow a firm grip when lifting the vessel. As the Gwari and Nupe people are neighbors, pottery shapes and designs often transferred between them. Look for similar zigzags and concentric lines on the nearby Gwari-inspired vessels. The shape of this vessel probably developed from real gourds used to hold liquids.

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