Jar

From the early 1900s, decorative containers for storing beer, oil, water, and wine have served as luxury items for Mangbetu rulers and the elite while also increasingly being sold to European travelers. The spherical base of this jar is ingeniously joined to the neck by four arching tubes. Mangbetu potters, who were typically female, favored indented and incised designs like the one displayed here: circular motifs combined with patterns were created by pushing a roulette (a toothed disk) across the surface.