THE ANNEKE BORREN COLLECTION Tuesday, 31 October 2017 - 10:00 AM start
An early Inca urpu (storage amphora)
Lot Details
collected from the Lake Titicaca region by a friend of Anneke Borren's father who lived in Bolivia. Reputedly 15thC. 200 x 270 x 400. With a later clay drinking cup. AB: "Owen (Mapp) and I travelled in the U.S., Central, and South America, for nearly two years, 1977 and 1978. The largest pre-Columbian pot, from the Tiahuanaco period (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwanaku) around lake Titicaca, was offered to the then director of Philips Electrical in La Paz, Bolivia, Where he was stationed, in the 1950-60s. He later came to New Zealand and tragically died in a helicopter crash, in the Kaimanawas." "This water bottle, to be carried as a backpack, with vine ropes, had a flared bottom, so it could stand. This was all wrong in comparison to the known shapes, which are settled in a hollow in the ground, so Owen took a gentle hammer tap to it, and there it was... a separate cup, attached by the local Indians, who 'knew' that Europeans like a base on pots. The cup should go with the water bottle." (see additional image of cup below)
