Ancient? Crafts class failure? You tell me.

Hi all! New here and hoping someone can at least point me in the right direction on a piece I found. I know absolutely nothing about this piece. It's a small vase made of some kind of earthenware. Could be terracotta, but seems a bit lighter in color - sort of a warm sandstone. There's a light glaze on it, but it's mostly matte in finish. No markings of any kind. Seems very old, or like it was made to make someone think it was old. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

Can you show it in a more natural light and show the other side and the bottom? Does it have a handle?
It's a "face neck" vessel of some kind, probably Peruvian, Chimu or Moche maybe.

 

Thanks! It's rainy today, so the light outside isn't great either, but here's a few more shots:

 

Welcome Aebon.

This kind of thing is so hard to ID. You may not get a conclusive answer on this forum. To my eye this could be newer, older, ancient, copy of ancient -- impossible to say. And for pieces that are suspected of being truly ancient, often date-testing of the clay is required, etc.

 

I figured that would be the case Lucille but I figured I'd take a chance. I found it at a local thrift store, so I was asking for curiosity's sake than anything.

 

Doesn't hurt to ask!

It may well be an incredibly valuable piece, or just worth what you paid at the thrift. Just the type of thing that is hard to ID.

I learned about this type of piece myself. 5 years ago purchased a number of Peruvian pieces from a university professor's estate. They all had detailed notes about where they were purchased, dating, etc., typed notes describing dates that were thousands of years old! It was the last day of the sale (was right after a natural disaster where I live --terrible weekend for a sale) and since nearly all pieces were unsold they made everything $10-20. I purchased eight pieces.

There are experts here on Antiquers who will recognize just about anything pottery, but the pieces I had did not get one response when I posted them.

Had to contact experts in the field (not easy) sent to auction in NY (unsold) and finally sold them on Ebay. I did make several hundred dollars, but spent many, many hours on it.

Didn't want you to feel like you were being ignored. This type of thing is tricky.

 

Thank you for the info! The small amount of info I could dig up on this type of thing made me think that would be case. I think I'll stick to the Mid Century stuff I normally collect!

 

Hello aebon, welcome to the forum.

It is a Chimú style monkey vessel, possibly a replica.
The Chimú were an important Peruvian coastal culture ca. 850 - 1470.
The foot rim is highly unusual for this kind of vessel, it is usually seen on vessels with an irregular shape, like llama head shapes.
The surface of the bottom is very rough and rather new looking. And it looks much lighter in colour, which I haven't seen in Chimu ware.
So I think it is a replica. But it would be worth checking with a museum that has a pre-Columbian arts department.

 

Thank you!