Bura Figurative Vessel Top

Thirteen inches of pattern, and not a bare patch to rest the eye.

The Bura people of Niger made terra cotta figures to surmount funerary jars, and the most elaborate are covered in finely worked ornament. This one, from the 11th to 15th centuries, wears a tall headdress studded all over with small conical knobs. A short, pillar-like nose. Below it, rows of stippled and incised patterns run in vertical bands and crosshatching, with small bosses for breasts and navel. The orange is soft on the surface and richer in the recesses.

Give it a quiet wall. Then give it an hour.