Kongo Storage Vessel with Figural Top

Pottery serves the household, and the potter, being human, decorates it.

The Kongo peoples of the Democratic Republic of Congo made this storage vessel in the 20th century. A round, full body rises twenty inches to a tall neck, and the neck ends in a human head whose parted lips form the opening.

A ring of small raised beads circles the base of the neck like a necklace. The eyes are gently closed, the coiffure rounded, and two slender arms are modeled in relief across the belly. The surface is a warm reddish-brown, softly burnished, with light wear from handling.

It holds its tongue. Remarkably, for a vessel with a mouth.