01/06/2026
Chekoua — Butter churn vessel
Baratte à beurre · Jbalà region, north-west Morocco
Early to mid 20th century (or older)
Large ceramic vessel in the characteristic double-gourd form of the traditional Chekoua (Arabic: الشكوة), a vessel type originally fashioned from dried calabash gourds. The vessel was used to produce butter and buttermilk (lben) by suspending it from a wooden tripod and setting it in a rocking motion. Two small loop handles at the shoulder served for attachment with ropes. The funnel neck is painted with geometric signs in blue-black — motifs rooted in Berber tradition that functioned as apotropaic symbols to protect the contents. The coarse, unglazed clay with its uneven fire patina is characteristic of the pottery tradition of the Rif and Jbalà region, practised exclusively by women, in which vessels were fired in the open air without a kiln.
The matte, unglazed surface identifies this piece as an authentic everyday object of rural Berber culture — in contrast to later, glazed variants produced for the market. A scholarly article on the Chekoua appeared as early as 1918 in the "Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France", underlining the ethnographic significance of this vessel type.
H: 48 cm
Provenance:
Pierre Loos, Brüssel
Nina & Henricus Simonis, Düsseldorf
