This piece of Romano-Celtic pottery is a becher (which translates to mug or cup). It is a local piece of early ceramic under Roman influence. According to the museum label I read, it is a piece of grey pottery produced in Cologne in the first half of the 1st century AD that was influenced by Roman pottery traditions. So, you may be wondering why I choose this simple piece of pottery. Well, it is because it reminds me of my grandfather, who lives in Guanajuato, Mexico, and who is an artisan of pottery.
Making pottery was his profession and how me maintained his
family. In fact, he still makes pottery nowadays. Every time I go visit him, I can always find him in the process of making some type of
pottery. He creates all types of pottery, whether it be for home décor or for
everyday use. However, he primarily makes several types of mugs/cups of varying
sizes and shapes. All of the pottery he creates are made of clay and are beautiful
works of art. I really don’t know his process for creating pottery because I
have not seen him make it from start to finish; when I visit
him, he either has started and is in the process of finishing or he has barely
started and not close to finishing. I believe it takes a while to make his
pottery. In order to “bake” his pottery, he doesn’t use a kiln. Instead, he
uses a type of earth oven. It is pretty cool watching the pottery “bake.” He
has been doing this is whole life. When I was viewing this object at the museum,
I started to remember a particular quote he told me, which is why I choose this
particular item. He told me. “Pottery has never been a business. It has always
been a way a life.” It made me think about the role pottery had back then and its
role in society today. When European style pottery came to dominate the region
he lives in, pottery was thriving in production. However, today we have a
society that increasing needs less pottery. I have included a few pictures of
my grandfather’s pottery so y’all can see the kinds of work he does. These are
actual pictures I have taken of his pottery.
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