1947.5.10

Collection type

Object

Description

Pottery bowl with band of geometrical patterns.

Long description

Pottery bowl with band of geometrical patterns around the sides. The interior is painted a dark orange. The base is convex. The ceramic is fine grained and dark orange coloured.

Geographical reference

Chile

Latin America and the Caribbean > South America > Chile

Coquimbo

Cultural groups

Diaguita

Person

Field collector Carlos Cruz Montt

PRM source Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge

PRM source Thomas Thomson Paterson

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1935

Date collected

By 1935

Acquisition information

Donated: 1947

Materials and processes

Material Pottery, Material Pigment, Process Decorated, Process Painted

Dimensions

Height: max 89 mm, Diameter: max 191 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1947.5.10 Other numbers: 1939.246.B

Research and responses

This bowl is one of seven Chilean ceramics received in exchange for material sent to the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) in 1947. The seven ceramics received were part of a larger collection of Chilean and Peruvian ceramics which are held in the MAA, the Carlos Cruz Montt collection. This collection was bought for the MAA at a Sotheby’s sale in London on 15th February 1939 by Geoffrey Hext Sutherland Bushnell, then Assistant Curator at the Museum. Louis Colville Gray Clarke is listed as the ‘monetary donor’ for this acquisition. The Sotheby’s sale catalogue describes it as “the celebrated Carlos Cruz Montt collection of South American antiquities, the property of Señor Carlos Cruz Eyzaguirre, of Santiago, Chile”. The British Museum also acquired items at this sale.

This bowl was acquired as part of Lot 19: “…three Bowls with geometric designs round the sides in coloured pigments…Coquimbo.” It was then accessioned into the Cambridge collection as 1939.246 B, along with a similar bowl, still in Cambridge, as 1939.246 A. The Cambridge accession book entry for 1939.246 A-B reads: ‘Two bowls, slightly concave sides. Red slip, black + red dec[oration] on white.’ The catalogue description reads: ‘Two bowls, rounded base, vertical and slightly concave sides. A. buff ware, base and interior covered with thin red slip or wash. Sides bear lines, step motifs and Greek key patterns in black and red on white slip. B. buff or dull red ware, painted decoration like A.”

A note from the MAA archive entitled ‘Exchange material sent to Pitt Rivers June 1947’ lists six objects, including four Diaguita ceramics, however this object’s number is not listed [see related documents file]. The objects sent to Cambridge in exchange (part of the Hoskold Collection) are accession numbers: 1947.7.05, 1947.7.061 .5-6, 1947.7.063 - 1947.7.068 and one other unidentified (undocumented) object from the Hoskold collection.

Carlos Cruz Montt was a member of a prominent Chilean family, a furniture-maker and art collector who died in 1935. His collection was inherited by his son, architect Carlos Alberto Cruz Eyzaguirre (1909-1967). See related documents file for further details. [JMC 12/07/2023]

Search terms: Vessel, Pottery, Bowl