82 



POTTERY. 



It would be impossible to mention here the numerous specimens of pottery 

 derived from Mexico, where, as every one knows, the aboriginal ceramic art 

 had attained a far higher degree of perfection than in the districts lying 

 northward of the Aztec empire. Attention must be drawn, however, to two 

 lai-ge vases of exquisite workmanship, which were brought to the United 

 States by General Alfred Gibbs, after the termination of the Mexican war, 

 and presented, with many other valuable Mexican relics, to the National 

 Museum by his mother, the late Mrs. Gibbs, of IS'ew York. One of them 

 (Fig. 298), a most elaborate specimen of pottery, is a round vase standing on 

 four carved feet, and narrowing toward the aperture, which is formed by 

 a short neck terminating in a horizontally projecting rim, ornamented with 

 incised ring-shajjed patterns. The vase, which measures thirteen inches and 



203 



MEXICAN VASES (J). 



a half in height, is suri-ounded by ten figures in relief, representing females, 

 five of whicli grasp a child with the left arm. These five figures, which alter- 

 nate with the others not holding children, are distinguished from them by a 

 more conspicuous head-dress. Above these ten figures are to be seen, in a 

 row, nine human heads, or masks, and between them, at nearly equal distances 

 from each other, three lizard-like designs, constituting twelve figures in all. 

 The feet divide the lower portion in four compartments, each of which exhibits 

 a figure of a man flanked by two human heads, and each foot is surmounted 

 by an animal, probably i-epresenting the coyote, of which only the head, chest, 

 and fore-paws are visible. 



The other vase (Fig. 299), matching the one just described, is a still more 

 admirable specimen of Mexican pottery, and, as far as the general outline 



