Large Cooked "champignon" In Terracotta

Large terracotta "mushroom" dish, height approximately 22 cm (irregular) with a diameter of 65 cm.
I continue to get out of the boxes, boxes and cases acquired in the succession of our Pau scholar whose insatiable cosmopolitan curiosity continues to reveal surprises and many questions: some of the objects carried a label indicating the origin, this which in the Internet era, put them within reach of a few clicks, others, like this one, would require more expertise than mine! For example, this large "mushroom" dish of which, in 34 years of career I live only three copies (I bought the two which were for sale, the second enthroned on my coffee table and, to the chagrin of Ma Chérie , using me a giant tidy pocket!), whose origin seems to me South-Saharan, perhaps Mauritania, Mali or Niger, but in fact, I do not know…
As we can see on the photos, it has a large felle, scratches on the periphery, scratches below and the central foot is blackened by heat and smoke. Perhaps it had this characteristic shape to keep food warm, or even to cook it by lighting a fire underneath ?
A wonderful patina that makes me date from the nineteenth and a sculptural form that allow it to integrate as well in a cabinet of curiosity as in a completely contemporary interior ...
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