Large Venda recurved handled jar

A large recurved Venda pot with handles from South Africa dating from the late 20th Century. Such traditional Venda pots are usually domestic and functional decorated with iron oxide powder and graphite over a terracotta clay body. The rim has two thin bands of applied graphite, separated with impressed designs, executed on wet clay. Production of Venda ceramics can date back centuries as the skills are handed down from generation to generation. These vessels are shaped by hand from raw clay obtained from local river banks, made to form the round body and then low fired in an open pit and then left to dy for several days. Signature Venda ceramics are typically decorated with ochre pigment and graphite burnished onto the exterior surface for decoration, resulting in a smooth, high gloss undulated surface. The selection of clay, production of pottery and firing of pots remains an active cultural traditional among Venda women. Often the vessels are stained with red ochre soil known in the TshiVenda language as, "luvhundi" . This ceramic entered the University of Pretoria Collections by donation of Daan De Wet Nel, Former Minister of Bantu Administration and Development during 1958-1966 in South Africa.