This article reports the discovery of colour-decorated pottery dating to the third millennium bc from the Isle of Man, the earliest yet known from the British Isles. Scientific studies of the vessel highlight technical aspects of its manufacture which are then used to situate the vessel in a wider social and cultural context through a brief review of its wider biography. The choice of colours — white, black and red — and their arrangement on the vessel walls are linked to wider north European symbolic schemes reflected also in contemporary pottery, mobiliary and rock art.