Tripod Vase with Bird Handles

CultureUlúa
Titles
  • Tripod Vase with Bird Handles
Date700–1000 AD
PlaceHonduras
MediumMarble
Dimensions5 3/4 × 13 × 9 3/4 in. (14.6 × 33 × 24.8 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund
Object number87.189
Current Location
The Caroline Wiess Law Building
205M Wiess Gallery
On view

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Description

This tripod cylinder vase is one of the largest and most elaborate made by the Ulúa peoples, who carved local marble into beautiful translucent vessels. Vases like this one were important luxury items treasured by the Maya and other cultures, and traded over long distances of Mesoamerica.


 The handles of this vase represent birds--possibly parrots or macaws--with large curved beaks. Frontal feline deity heads featuring sharp fangs and round ears framed by profile serpent heads decorate the sides. These motifs are embedded in rows and columns of scrolls that probably signify the watery underworld. 


 The Ulúa peoples lived in the Ulúa River valley, located in present-day Honduras, from 700 to 1000. They never developed metalworking. Using only stone tools, they skillfully carved large marble vases full of elegance and imagery. Though today these vessels are appreciated for the translucent quality of the marble, they may once have been covered with painted stucco.


Provenance[Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles, mid-1960s–1987]; purchased by MFAH, 1987.
Exhibition History"Treasures of the New World," at Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, Sep. 15 - Dec. 27, 1992 (LN:92.15)

"On the Edge of the Maya World: Stone Vases from the Ulúa Valley, Honduras" at MFAH from Feb. 23-May 31, 1992. (Exh. # EX.1992.UV.21)

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Two paper stickers removed from the underside, transferred to Accession file: "941" "STENDAHL"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Tripod Vase
900–1520 AD
Onyx-marble
86.411
Urn
c. 1800–1825
Bluejohn, ormolu-mounted, marble
94.1061
Obelisk, one of a pair
no date
Bluejohn, white and Sienna marble
96.1246.1
Obelisk, one of a pair
no date
Bluejohn, white and Sienna marble
96.1246.2
Obelisk
c. 1850
Specimen and black marble
94.1162
Votive Figural Sculpture, or "Axe"
c. 1000–500 BC
Greenstone
2023.232
Vase
2340–2181 BC
Egyptian alabaster (calcite)
31.64
Bowl
20th century
Jade
96.1838.A,.B
Vase with Handle
No date
Alabaster
52.49
front of object
900–200 BC
Shell with stone inlays
2010.652.1,.2
Tazza
no date
Bluejohn and marble
96.1225
Firetool Rest
18th century
Marble
B.76.238