COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



Figs. 23 and 24. 



POTTERY WHISTLES. () DETAIL OF MOUTHPIECE OF FIG. 23. 



Costa Rica. Arellano Collect; 



very spirited way, with due observance of perspective. The ornaineu- 

 ation is applied in bands around the upper third of the vase, which i& 

 25 cm. high, 20 cm. in 

 greatest diameter, and 

 11J cm. at the mouth. 



Though this vase is from 

 the peninsula of Nicoya it was 

 probably made in the neigh 

 boring island of Chira, whose 

 caciqia or galpon was vassal 

 of Nicoya, and where, accord 

 ing to Oviedo in his Historia 

 general de las Indias, Tome I V, 

 page 105, &quot;se hacia muy her- 

 mosa loza de platos y escudil- 

 las e cantaras e jarros e otras 

 vasijas muy bun labradas, e 

 tan negras como un fino tercio- 

 pelo negro, e con un lustre de 

 un muy pulido azabache ; y yo 

 truxe algunas piezas de esa 

 loza hasta esta ciudad de Santo 

 Domingo de la isla Espanola, 



que se podian dar a un principe por su lindeza, e del tallo e forma que se les pide a 

 se las mandan haeer a los indios asi las haceu.&quot; 1 



The hourglass supports for round-bottomed jars are curious. There 



are great numbers of these from Nicoya 

 (fig. 27). 



THE POTTERY OF NICARAGUA. 



In examining the pottery of Nicaragua 

 it is found that the paste is usually mixed 

 with a degraissant of sand, or broken frag 

 ments of crystalline rock, burning to a light- 

 red color. In the common, heavy ware the 

 admixture of sand renders the body stone- 

 like. The dark gray and black ware seems 

 to have been produced by smothering the fire 



in burning, as is practiced in Santa Clara and some other Pueblos of 



New Mexico, in making black, lustrous ware. 

 There is very little to show the methods pursued in building up the 



Nicaraguan pottery. From the small size and comparatively simple 



character of the 1,000 pieces displayed, it may be presumed that they 



were constructed entire by hand from lumps of clay rather than by 



coiling. 



Considerable skill in modeling is evidenced in Nicaraguan pottery f 



the handles of animal heads and the grotesque supports to the tazzas 



BEST FOE ROUND-BOTTOMED JARS. 



oya, Costa Rica. 



Peralta y Alfaro, Catalogo de Costa Rica. Madrid, 1893, p. 78. 



