A Vicús Double-Chambered Figural Vessel, ca. A.D. 100-500

with a woman giving birth and holding her rounded belly  with outstretched fingers, her navel protruding and legs bent tightly, the hollow head forming the whistle with her mouth open in exclamation, eyes pierced at the corners, and with coiffure of crossed plaits extending down her back around the multiple perforations, joined to a bottle with spout forming the mouth piece, the whole decorated in negative black resist on the reddish brown.

Mr. and Mrs. John Tishman, New York, acquired before 1972

Vicús ceramics from the Far North coast are roughly contemporary with early Moche styles, but are distinctive for the double-chambered whistling vessels decorated by negative resist. This concept was an influence from neighboring Ecuadorian traditions. See Lapiner (1976: fig. 448) and Sawyer (1968: fig. 164).