Clay Beer Pot - Zulu People, South Africa, Mid Century Modern

This stunning black and terra cotta colored pot features incised line decoration that has a very bold, very modern appeal. It was created from fine clay by women in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa sometime in the early to mid 20th century. Pots of this kind have been made the same way for thousands of years -- the clay is harvested from the riverbank and then hand-coiled and smoothed before it is burnished and fired in an open fire pit. Pots of this kind are intended for serving & drinking a sorghum-based beer that is brewed in larger, roughly made clay vessels. The drinking of this beer is associated not only with the living, but also with the dead, to whom it is offered whenever ritual dictates that the ancestors must be remembered & appeased. This pot is 7" tall and 4.75" wide. It is in good condition with two chips on the rim, one of which was previously repaired.