An Aztec Ceramic Incensario, Late Postclassic period, ca. 1350–1521 CE

This burnished red ceramic incensario of brazier form features a wide flared mouth rising from a sharply carinated body and is pierced with three registers of circular vent holes to facilitate airflow during the burning of aromatic resins. The vessel stands on two tapered slab legs, decorated with incised geometric motifs, with the elongated loop handle extending horizontally to serve as a stabilizing third support. 

Incense burners were central to Aztec ritual practice, used in both domestic and temple contexts to burn copal and other aromatic substances offered to the gods. The perforated body permitted embers to remain active while smoke dispersed evenly, reflecting the object’s practical ceremonial function.

The restrained decoration, burnished red slip, and architectural tripod construction correspond with utilitarian Aztec ritual ceramics produced in Central Mexico during the Late Postclassic period. The incised geometric ornament on the legs echoes broader Aztec decorative vocabulary derived from textile and architectural patterning.

Medium: Ceramic

Dimensions: Length: 11 inches (27.94 cm), Height: 4 inches (10 cm)

Condition: Repaired from three original sections with a small rim fragment reattached; otherwise complete with surface wear consistent with age.

Provenance: This vessel comes from the noted collection assembled during the 1960s-80s by Justin Kerr and Dicey Taylor, pioneering scholars in the study of Maya art. Kerr is best known for developing rollout photography to document cylindrical vessels, an innovation that revolutionized the understanding of Maya narrative painting and epigraphy. Taylor, an art historian and curator, worked closely with Kerr in cataloguing and researching the collection, and the couple became well known for their scholarship and connoisseurship in Maya art.

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