Featured Moche pottery

I received this 2 gifts while working in Peru from 2011 to 2015. Originals? It seems to me!!

 

I'm asking only about the first piece of pottery . . . by any chance is it a "whistle"?

 

I think you are right, but the holes need some cleaning.

 

A stirrup spout vessel (so called because of its resemblance to a stirrup) is a type of ceramic vessel common among several Pre-Columbian cultures of South America beginning in the early 2nd millennium BCE.[1]

These cultures included the Chavin and the Moche. In these vessels the stirrup handle actually forms part of the spout, which emanates from the top of the stirrup. The jars, which were often elaborately figurative, would be cast from a mold, while the stirrup spout was built by hand and welded to the vessel with slip.

I doubt that's a whistle....

I thought the whistling vessels were from other cultures...and were double pots....to make the sound.

 

They first one looks like a replica to me, the second one could be the real deal, but I am not too sure. It is always best to take pre-Columbian pottery to someone who can handle it, the best way to judge.
Moche pottery is very well executed, near perfect. No sloppy blobs, or random grooves that accumulate residue or junk. It has a beautiful soft sheen.



Pre-Columbian artifacts cannot be exported from Peru without official approval, which includes all the paperwork and running from one office to another. There is a 1970 Unesco convention for cultural heritage items in general, and the specific San Salvador Convention of 1976, which both Peru and Panama signed.
Many replicas now come with certificates as well, stating that they are replicas, just to avoid confusion. Those are not issued by any government agency of course.

The Moche were famous for their whistling vessels, but as Komo said, those are twin vessels. When you pour liquid from the spout of the main vessel, the air drawn into a small hole in the top of the secondary vessel makes a whistling sound. The hole is often partly hidden by the figure of a bird.

By the way, Komo, the first picture of a Moche twin vessel looks like a replica as well, the second one is Chancay style, probably a replica. I know, they are just examples of twin vessels.

 

Yup, I know.
I just grabbed pics of a couple of twin pots to show....

 

I know, that's how it goes.

 

I received these gifts from 2 different people. I thought they were replicas, but since they were gifts of good faith, so I transported them. Peru is famous for fakes of all kinds, mainly clothing. When I visited Cuzco and Nazca I saw pieces offered to tourists as originals, I visited in Nazca a workshop that manufactures reproductions for tourists where they explain the Nazca technique of manufacture. In short, they were 2 true gifts of heart. Here are repros i bought some with info, some without. By the way, if you have a weak stomach, don take the planes to see Nazca lines.