Vintage Mexican Tonalá Burnished Pottery Fish Sculpture

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Description

Wonderful vintage Mexican folk-art fish sculpture, handcrafted in the celebrated pottery tradition of Tonalá, Jalisco, Mexico.
This highly stylized fish … Read more Wonderful vintage Mexican folk-art fish sculpture, handcrafted in the celebrated pottery tradition of Tonalá, Jalisco, Mexico.
This highly stylized fish features a beautifully burnished dark brown-to-black clay surface embellished with hand-worked decoration in warm brick red, rust, terracotta and earthy brown tones. Large circular eyes give the fish a wonderfully whimsical expression, while finely incised lines create overlapping scale-like patterns across the body.
Decorative floral motifs appear toward the tail, with additional hand-incised details defining the fins and body. The long tapered tail and compact sculptural form give the piece a distinctly modernist quality while retaining the character of traditional Mexican folk pottery.
The underside reveals the hollow handmade ceramic construction. Subtle variations in the surface, decoration and form are characteristic of individually crafted pottery.
Unsigned and unmarked. Based on the construction and decoration, this piece is attributed to the Tonalá/Jalisco pottery tradition rather than to a specific maker.
A particularly appealing example for a collection of Mexican folk art, Tonalá pottery or vintage studio ceramics, and equally attractive displayed alone on a bookshelf, cocktail table, console or desk. See less