Vintage Shona Pot 61.4

A hand-built earthenware pot from the Shona people of Zimbabwe, known in Shona as a hari. Pots like this were traditionally made by women and sat at the centre of domestic life — serving food and drink and storing dry foodstuffs.

The neck and shoulder are incised with geometric patterns, the clay hand-burnished and finished with graphite and red oxide, then hardened in open pits fired with dry cow dung (ndove), which gives the surface its smoky, earthy variation. Decorated pots like this were the prestige pieces, kept for guests and special use rather than everyday cooking.

A generous, large vessel and a genuine vintage piece, carefully restored, with the natural marks and patina of age that make it one of a kind.

Size: approx. 48cm D × 42cm H. Opening diameter: 18cm.