A Large Published Maya Polychrome Plate with Rim Text, Classic Period, ca. 7th – 8th century CE

This large and exceptional polychrome-decorated pottery plate stands on integral tripod rattle legs, each hollow support containing small clay pellets that produce sound when the vessel is lifted or shaken. The broad interior is painted in black and red on an orange slip, depicting a seated dignitary richly adorned with jewelry and an elaborate headdress, rendered in bold, flowing linear brushstrokes. His posture, regalia, and central placement identify him as a figure of high authority, such as a ruler or governor, embodying status and ceremony in Classic Maya courtly culture.

Encircling the rim is a hieroglyphic inscription, a variant of the Primary Standard Sequence (PSS), a dedicatory text formula that typically identifies a vessel’s function and owner. Notably, the inscription includes the glyph lak (“plate”), a relatively uncommon designation compared with the more familiar vase or cup formulas. Even more striking is the text’s conclusion with the expression ko-ba-al (kob’al). This unusual phrase also appears on the celebrated Vase K504, where it is written in fuller form: “In the vase are the seeds of the genitals.” The wording is a euphemism for corn gruel (atole), a staple of Maya life and a substance deeply imbued with associations of fertility, generation, and ritual sustenance.

In this plate, the truncated form of the phrase likely carried the same metaphorical resonance, linking the food vessel to broader themes of creation, sexuality, and renewal. Epigraphic study of the rim text has revealed several paleographic curiosities that make this vessel especially important. Certain signs appear inverted or rotated, a feature that suggests either a deliberate stylistic choice or the conventions of a particular scribal school. Decorative volutes, sometimes called “superfluous” by modern scholars, are applied here with striking consistency, adding flourish to the otherwise compact glyphs.

Scholars such as David Mora-Marín have noted that this consistent embellishment may have originated from analogies with the sign ta (T51), and its presence here contributes to the vessel’s significance as an example of scribal experimentation and elaboration. The inscription also exhibits an unusual duplication in the spelling of u-lak (“his/her plate”), a further detail that highlights the flexibility and inventiveness of Maya writing traditions.

The form of the vessel itself deepens its ritual implications. The tripod rattle legs suggest that it was not only intended for serving or presentation but also for active performance. When shaken, the vessel would have emitted a rhythmic sound, transforming the plate into a kind of musical instrument. As Sam Edgerton has observed, this feature may have accompanied the symbolic preparation of atole, with the rattling evoking the rhythms of dance and ceremony. In this sense, the plate was both a container and an instrument of ritual, integrating image, text, sound, and movement in a unified ceremonial act.

Comparanda highlight the rarity and importance of this piece. The epigraphic parallel to Vase K504 provides the key to understanding the kob’al phrase, linking this plate directly to one of the most discussed inscriptions in Maya ceramic studies. Several other tripod vessels with rattle legs are known, including examples in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Chrysler Museum, though few combine the rattle-footed form with an elaborate hieroglyphic band of this kind. A comparable tripod plate painted with a throne-seated deity, sold at Sotheby’s in 2023, further underscores the prestige context of such vessels. Together, these examples situate the present plate within a small but important group of ceremonial ceramics used in Maya courts during the Late Classic period.

This plate is a remarkable convergence of art, text, sound, and performance. Its painted dignitary proclaims status and authority; its rim inscription identifies it as a plate and links it to the metaphorical nourishment of corn gruel and fertility.   Its rattle legs transform it into a living ritual instrument. Visually impressive and epigraphically significant, it represents the high artistry and cultural depth of Classic Maya courtly ceramics. 

Published:  Maya Vase Database, Kerr Number:  4498.  

Medium: Ceramic

Dimensions: Diameter: 14.5 ins (36.83 cm), Height: 4.0 ins (10.16 cm)

Condition: Condition is excellent for a vessel of this scale and complexity. It has been professionally reassembled to museum standards from four large and three smaller original fragments, with little overpainting or cosmetic restoration beyond stabilization. The break lines are faintly visible but unobtrusive, and the slip and paint remain vibrant, preserving the clarity of both the central image and the rim text. Importantly, the legs are intact and retain their pellets, which rattle audibly when the vessel is moved. 

Provenance:  From the distinguished collection of Justin Kerr and Dicey Taylor, New York City. Kerr, celebrated for pioneering rollout photography and for creating the comprehensive Maya Vase Database, assembled many of the finest examples of Classic Maya painted ceramics during the 1970s and early 1980s.

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. The piece was acquired prior to 1986 and retained by the Kerr–Taylor household for decades. The plate is presented on Mayavase.com as no. 4498, where it forms part of Kerr’s foundational photographic corpus used by researchers and museums worldwide.