Black-topped Red Ware Jar

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Black-topped Red Ware Jar

Place of OriginEgypt

DatePredynastic Period, Naqada I–II, about 3400–3200 BCE

DimensionsH 13 1/2 × Diam. body 7 11/16 × Diam. rim 5 × Diam. base 2 7/8 in. (34.3 × 19.5 × 12.7 × 7.3 cm)

MediumHand-built earthenware, burnished, with carbonized rim.

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey, Florence Scott Libbey, and the Egypt Exploration Society, by exchange

Object number

1993.61

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionA tall, hand-built earthenware jar with a piriform (pear-shaped) body, broad shoulders, and a tapering lower body ending in a small, slightly convex resting surface. The vessel was constructed using the coil technique. The surface is highly burnished, exhibiting a deep red ochre color on the body that transitions to a lustrous black at the rim and upper interior. The black top was achieved by placing the hot vessel rim-down in organic material during the firing process. The interior bottom contains residues of a bright red pigment (likely red ochre). The rim shows a small ancient chip and associated crack.

Label TextThis elegant jar was created by hand more than 5,000 years ago, long before the invention of the potter's wheel in Egypt. It is a prime example of "black-topped red ware," a style famous for its striking color contrast. The potter polished the clay to a shine with a smooth stone, then fired it in a way that turned the rim black while keeping the body red. The narrow, rounded bottom suggests it was meant to stand upright in the sandy floor of a home or a tomb. Inside, traces of a bright red powder—likely red ochre—suggest this jar may have once held cosmetics or ritual pigments for the afterlife.Published ReferencesChristie, Manson & Woods, Ltd., Fine Antiquities (London, July 7, 1993), p. 48, lot 117.

Peck, William H., Sandra E. Knudsen and Paula Reich, Egypt in Toledo: The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2011, p. 29, repr. (col.) p.29.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, 2010-2012.Comparative ReferencesSee also Hayes, W., The Scepter of Egypt, Part I, New York, 1953, pp. 16-17, fig. 7.

cf. Raphael, M., Prehistoric Pottery and Civilization in Egypt, Washington, D.C., 1947, pp. 67-74, pl. x.

cf. Smith, W.S., Ancient Egypt, Boston, 1960, pp. 19-20.