Storage Container (Mulondo)

Writing in 1905 and 1906, the German ethnographer Leo Frobenius praised Songye pottery, attributing to it a “plainly astonishing beauty and a copious but measurable abundance of forms.” Indeed, Frobenius recorded over two hundred different types of Songye pots, many of which were variations on the tall-necked storage container.

This container demonstrates the stylistic variations-on-a-theme that characterize Songye pottery: it is embellished in a characteristically robust style, with deeply incised lines that emphasize the neck and shoulders. The chain of arches around the shoulders have a bouncing spontaneity. According to Frobenius, much of this kind of embellishment is added to a pot when it is still wet, while finer details are incised after it is leather hard. The surface is overlaid with a dense, crusty coating interrupted by areas of high sheen that suggest age and use. [See also 1995.149].