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Image Not Available for Slides of people making pottery, from Charles R. McGimsey III and Gordon Willey expedition
Slides of people making pottery, from Charles R. McGimsey III and Gordon Willey expedition
Image Not Available for Slides of people making pottery, from Charles R. McGimsey III and Gordon Willey expedition
Object Number 2024.3.1
Display Title Slides of people making pottery, from Charles R. McGimsey III and Gordon Willey expedition
Descriptions
Department Photographic
Archival Inventory
Intro - Map of Panama 1 - View from the street of the potter's house, La Arena, Panama 2 - View from the street of the potter's side yard; the pottery firing area is between the logs in foreground and the house 3 - Principal potter in her work area (a back room of the house) 4 - One of the potter's young assistants 5 - Assistant and onlookers 6 - Tools of the trade: top left - raspa resting on a colador; top right - cuchara; lower left - polishing pebble; lower left center - white pottery clay ( upper), red slip clay (lower); lower right center - strip of leather; lower right - uva. 7 - Coladors with ground pottery clay ready for sifting 8 - Broken vessel used to keep uva and leather strip moist 9 - Short board occasionally used as a work area; raw clay on end of board 10 - Potter crushing raw clay with a mano de moler 11 - Crushed raw clay stored in a large broken vessel with water until ready for use 12 - Using the colador to sift crushed raw clay onto the work area 13 - A handfull of moist raw clay placed onto the work area covered with sifted clay 14 - foreground: unworked raw clay as brought in from the field; background: initial stage of a mass of moist clay being worked into dry sifted clay 15 - Later stage of moist clay and dry sifted clay being mixed 16 - Adding more sifted clay to the work area 17 - Final stage of mixing mass of moist clay with dry sifted clay 18 - Reaching the point of proper mixture 19 - Nearly completed cone of clay 20 - Nearly completed cone of clay 21 - Completed cone of clay ready for initiating a vessel 22 - The cone of clay (just to the left of the chest of the potter) has just been dashed to the floor, base first, causing the base to spread out into a disk and leaving an elevated peak in the center 23 - The elevated peak has been broken off and worked into the upper surface of the disk 24 - Another view of the disk with the peak worked in 25 - The disk is held in the left hand and the right fist is driven into the center 26 - Folding up the edges of the disk to form a "V" (in cross section) 27 - A very rough coil is added to the top of the"V" to increase the height of the vessel's walls 28 - Annealing and shaping the final coil of an olla 29 - Pinching and shaping the upper portion of an olla 30 - Shaping and strengthening the upper portion of an olla by adding bits of clay to the interior 31 - Several ollas ready for drying 32 - Scraping and shaping an olla with the raspa after drying 33 - Smoothing and shaping of the upper portion of an olla with the uva 34 - Further smoothing of the upper portion of an olla with the uva 35 - Final smoothing of the uppe3r portion of an olla with the uva 36 - Getting ready to polish the rim of an olla with the leather strip 37 - Final smoothing and polishing of an olla with the leather strip 38 - Adding lugs to an olla 39 - Ticking the lugs on an olla 40 - Final smoothing and initial polishing of an olla with the uva 41 - Polishing the exterior of an unslipped olla with a polishing pebble 42 - Polishing the interior of an unslipped olla with a polishing pebble 43 - Polishing the exterior of a red slipped olla with a polishing pebble 44 - The basic clay disk for a large tinaja after the initial fist impression 45 - The edges of the disk are folded up to form a "V" (in cross section) 46 - The exterior ( of a small tinaja) is thinned and roughly shaped by dragging side of the first finger up from the base 4 7 - The interior ( of a small tinaja) is thinned and shaped by dragging the tips of the fingers of one hand up from the base 48 - Preparing the first coil to be added to the basic disk of a small tinaja 49 - Ready to anneal the first coil of a small tinaja 50 - Annealing the first coil of a small tinaja 51 - The first coil added to the basic disk to form a large tinaja 52 - Thinning and shaping of the first coil added to a large tinaja 53 - The lower portion of a large tinaja thinned and shaped 54 - Adding a large coil to the base of a large tinaja to begin forming the insloping upper portion 55 -A small coil added to (another) large tinaja to begin the insloping upper portion 56 - Annealing this coil 57 - Adding another (large) coil to the upper portion of a tinaja 58 - Thinning and shaping of the upper portion of a tinaja 59 - Further thinning and shaping of a tinaja after another coil has been added 60 - Adding the final body coil to a tinaja (below the neck) 61 - The final body coil thinned and shaped 62 - Thinning and shaping the interior after the final body coil has been added 63 - Thinning and shaping the body of a large tinaja with the raspa, after it has dried well 64 - Another view of thinning and shaping with the raspa 65 - Roughening the base of the neck of a small tinaja, by moistening and pinching, prior to adding a coil to form the neck and rim 66 - Adding the neck and rim coil to a small tinaja 6 7 - Neck coil thinned and shaped; the rim not yet shaped 68 - Shaping the rim with the cuchara 69 - Forming scallops on the rim with the cuchara 70 - Medium tinaja dried and polished but unslipped 71 - Large tinaja dried and with red slip partially slopped on 72 - Large tinaja covered with red slip prior to polishing 73 - Large tinaja after polishing of the red slip 74 - Vessels stacked as they would be for firing (these had already been fired but were stacked to show how it had been done) 7 5 - Wood and dung beginning to be stacked around vessels preparatory to firing (illustrated with vessels already fired) 76 - Potter's young son getting ready to help carry vessels to the front of the house for sale 77 - Vessels for sale in front of the potter's house
Date 1952
Artist Dr. Charles R. McGimsey III
Culture
  • Central American
Geography/Provenience/Site Name
Central America / Panama / Herrera / La Arena
Materials Slide, color
Dimensions Interior: 7/8 × 1 3/8 in. (2.3 × 3.5 cm)
Quantity 78
Credit Line Gift of Dr. Charles R. McGimsey III, 2024
Provenance
Donor Donated by Charles Robert McGimsey

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