Bird-shaped earthenware vessels were a staple of ancient pottery for thousands of years. Potters used the bird’s basic anatomy to produce charming, comfortably held items for storing water and other fluids. This vessel’s material, typical expression, and the shape of the base, made on a potter’s wheel, all indicate its origin in a pottery workshop in Lydia. 

The vessel’s replicas, used as money boxes (or, if you like, “ducky banks”), are decorated in the original style or in different varieties of colors and shapes. Each was designed by hand, based on a prototype of the ancient object. The replicas were then fired and hand-painted one by one, faithful to the work process employed in antiquity. 

The original vessel is in the Leo Mildenberg Collection