Any help would be appreciated. This "bowl" has a rounded bottom and seems to made of a black glass. It is etched with fish and turtles. It is a very nice-looking piece and might be old. Any idea what to call it and it's value? Thanks in advance!
posted on September 20, 2002 07:23:28 PM new
You did something wrong when you put your pictures on. All you get is a box with a red x in it. Try again....
There are no identifying marks.
I am not really sure of the material. It seems glass-like on the outside, but the inside has a rough, non-glossy, textured finish like some kind of pottery.
Thanks again......
[ edited by bones21 on Sep 20, 2002 09:22 PM ]
Right click on your pic and then on Properties to find the url and then put [$img] in front of the picture url and [$/img] after it but take out the $ sign and it should work.
[$img]http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/preview/bo/bones21/African400.jpg[$/img] (without the $ sign)
The bowl looks like pottery on my screen but I don't know anything about it.
posted on September 20, 2002 09:34:35 PM new
My first thought was Mayan or Aztec. However the humanoid figure on the left side of the first pic looks a little like Haitian voodoo.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on September 20, 2002 09:48:30 PM new
The humanoid figure on the left side of the first pic that looks a little like Haitian voodoo to you looks like a turtle to me.
Or are you just saying that because there is a full moon tonight?
posted on September 20, 2002 09:56:25 PM new
Does the bowl look old or newish? It looks an awful lot like a type of Southwestern Indian pottery that can be very valuable--the name of it escapes me currently, you know how that is! but I'll think of it probably overnight. Mimba? Nimba? Those are the syllables springing to mind right now. It'll come. . . .
posted on September 20, 2002 09:57:41 PM new
Thanks Kiara for the developing and telling me how to do it.
Sparkz, I think the figure in the left of the first picture is a turtle. The picture doesn't show it, but it has a short tail coming up over its back. But could be Haitian voodoo.... I am leaning toward some sort of African-influence, but again just mostly "ignorant" in regard to this piece, so I'd better quit talking.
posted on September 20, 2002 10:02:37 PM new
Roadsmith, it LOOKS old. I've probably had it 15 years and it came out of an old person's estate sale, and that's about all I know. If you think of that name after you've slept on it, please let me know. Thanks!
posted on September 20, 2002 10:09:09 PM new
It's Mimbres pottery that I've been trying to think of! Not sure if I'm right about yours, but I did a search on Google.com, and in one of the many items that came up, there was a book list, which I'll copy below for you. But go to Google, type in Mimbres pottery, and you'll see actual examples. Good luck!
References and other books on Mimbres culture
Anyon, Roger, and Steven LeBlanc. 1984. The Galaz ruin: a prehistoric
Mimbres village in southwestern New Mexico. Albuquerque: Maxwell
Museum of Anthropology, Univ. of New Mexico Press.
Brody, J. J. 1977. Mimbres painted pottery. Santa Fe: School of American
Research.
Brody, J. J. 1983. Mimbres pottery: ancient art of the American Southwest.
New York: Hudson Hills Press.
Cox, Robert. 1997. "Etheogenic Tradition of the Mogollon Mimbres." A
Mining Company web site, http://www.mimbres.com/entheo/blmca.htm.
LeBlanc, Steven A. 1983. The Mimbres people: ancient Pueblo painters of
the American Southwest. New York: Thames and Hudson.
Lekson, Stephen H. 1990. Mimbres archaeology of the Upper Gila, New
Mexico. Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press.
Many of these books are available for purchase through The Antlion Pit
Bookstore.
Related web sites
bugbios.com (Dexter Sear, USA). This elegantly-designed insect reference site
is also home to the Cultural Entomology Digest Online, the definitive resource
for studying the influence of insects on human culture as seen in myth,
psychology and art.
Prehistoric Peoples of the Southwest: Mimbres Villages (University of
Arizona, Tucson, USA). Anthropology course outline.
Etheogenic Tradition of the Mogollon Mimbres (by Robert Cox, for The
Mining Company). Includes articles on Mimbres culture, their use of
psychoactive drugs, and a picture of another antlion bowl.
To Touch the Past: Painted Pottery of the Mimbres People (The
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum). Exhibition notes discuss Mimbres
pottery and cultural significance.
posted on September 20, 2002 10:37:19 PM new
Kiara... Yep, it looks like a full moon tonight. I can see where it might resemble a turtle, so I'll go with my alternate theory. It's probably a Cajun pot used to make turtle soup. Doubt if it would bring more than two or three thousand on Ebay.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on September 20, 2002 10:51:35 PM new
Sounds like the Mimbres suggestion is right on. The etching part threw me at first. Here's some strong references from this web site
Prehistoric Native American cultures, including the Mimbres, are known to have used psychoactive plants and other trance-inducing mechanisms for spiritual, healing and recreational needs. According to some experts, the checker board and whirling vortex designs in Mimbres antlion bowls are probably hallucinogenically inspired (Cox 1997).
In addition to antlions and other insects, Mimbres figurative pottery depicted amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, and human forms (Brody 1977). Not all Mimbres representational paintings were of realistic scenes. Some portrayed mammals with fish-tails, bird-wings, and human-like heads. Important insight into Mimbres art has been provided by the Hopi, a modern day Puebloan people. The Hopi have interpreted many scenes as showing how the lives of man and animal were intertwined; the symbiotic rather than the adversarial aspect of the relationship is stressed (LeBlanc 1983, 120).
posted on September 20, 2002 11:09:47 PM new
Thanks Roadsmith and tooltimes for the hard work. The Mimbres angle might be the right one. I'm going to keep looking at the different websites and maybe I will see something similar. Thanks to everyone for all the input tonight.
Doubt if it would bring more than two or three thousand on Ebay.