Janus Antiquities and Art

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Nayarit Polychrome Tripod Bowl, Pre-Columbian Mexico Catalogue: Antiques: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pottery: Pre AD 1000 item# 801126
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 $250
This is a lovely, boldly-colored tripod bowl produced by the Nayarit culture of ancient western Mexico. The cultures of Pre-Columbian west Mexico never built the massive archaeological structures of their eastern neighbors, but their ceramic tradition rivals anything contemporary in the Americas. Like many tripod bowls, this one originally would have had small pebbles or bits of clay in the legs so that it would rattle when shaken. ...click for details

Elaborate Pre-Columbian Dancer's Head, Veracruz Catalogue: Antiques: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Sculpture: Pre AD 1000 item# 801119
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 $245
This figure belongs to a group of solid, hand-sculpted figures from the Remojadas region of Pre-Columbian Veracruz, Mexico. Although it is difficult to say for sure in the absence of the full figure, the elaborate serpent headdress suggests the figure was originally a ceremonial dancer representing a warrior. Note the use of bitumen, a thick tar-like form of petroleum, that was used to highlight details like the dancer's mouth and the serpent's eyes. ...click for details

Big Pre-Columbian Stone Offering Statue, Costa Rica Catalogue: Antiques: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Sculpture: Pre AD 1000 item# 801113
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 $400
Although Pre-Columbian Costa Rica is best known for gold and jade, the Atlantic Highlands region in particular has a long history of carving substantial statues from the volcanic rock that is common in the region. This example depicts a kneeling figure making a large, box-shaped offering. Little is known about the particular cultures that inhabited the area; as many as 25 distinct cultural groups developed in Costa Rica with their own unique characteristics. However, the widespread practice of c ...click for details

Large Classic Period Smiling Head, Remojadas, Veracruz Catalogue: Archives: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pre AD 1000 item# 801103
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 SOLD
This nice display piece is from a type of Pre-Columbian figure commonly known as "sonrientes" (smiling figures). They were produced by a Classic-period culture in what is today the central and northern portions of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Most sonriente figures were produced at Remojadas, an important ceramic center for the Veracruz culture. Although these seemingly benign smiling figures have been f ...click for details

Stylized Pre-Columbian Armadillo, West Mexico Catalogue: Archives: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pre AD 1000 item# 720944
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 SOLD
This stone statue of an animal depicts what I believe is a stylized armadillo, suggested by the deeply carved spirals indicative of the segmented striping on the shell of the actual animal. The carving is characteristically West Mexican, with the treatment showing a blend of Mezcala-Guerrero and Colima styles. Despite its quirky appearance, this is an interesting figure worthy of future study -- it clearly demonstrates how neighboring cultures borrowed styles and techniques from each other. ...click for details

Large, Zoomorphic Metate, Pre-Columbian Costa Rica Catalogue: Archives: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pre 1492 item# 719938
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 SOLD
A metate is a solid, flat object used for grinding grains, typically corn in Mesoamerica, into meal or flour for use in cooking. Grains scattered on the metate would be ground with a hand-held stone called a mano until crushed, then brushed off into a collection basin. Pre-Columbian Costa Rica had a rich tradition of making highly elaborate, frequently votive metates out of volcanic stone, particularly in the Atlantic Highland region. This example was carved in the form of jaguar, with head, tai ...click for details

Jalisco Standing Female Figure, Pre-Columbian Mexico Catalogue: Archives: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pre AD 1000 item# 719879
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 SOLD
This is a nice little Ameca-Etzatlan style Jalisco figure of a woman. She has broad shoulders and high-seated breasts that are typical for this type of figure, with nice burnishing throughout. See Figure 11, page 96, of Townsend's "Ancient West Mexico" for a processional group of similar small figures of this type. AGE: 350 BC - 200 AD ...click for details

Nayrit Double-Headed Jar, Pre-Columbian West Mexico Catalogue: Antiques: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Sculpture: Pre AD 1000 item# 719877
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 $175
Conjoined bodies or double heads are common motifs in Pre-Columbian West Mexico thought to represent duality or transformation. This small jar shows two figures whose body forms a small, round jar with a narrow opening on top. The posture of the figures and the positioning of their hands is ambiguous, but it appears that each is trying to push away from the jar and break free from each other. AGE: 200 BC - 250 AD ...click for details

Pre-Columbian Chupicuaro Figure of a "Pretty Lady" Catalogue: Antiques: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Sculpture: Pre AD 1000 item# 719872
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 $325
This Chupicuaro "pretty lady" figure is noteworthy in several respects. First, she is elaborately decorated with applique work of a higher quality than is typical for this type of figure. Second, and most importantly, she is quite large for the type (3.67" tall) and completely intact, a rarity for a type of figure most often plowed up with tools in the course of farming or construction! Pretty lady fi ...click for details

Pre-Columbian Tripod Bowl, Cajamarca Peru Catalogue: Antiques: Regional Art: Americas: South American: Pre AD 1000 item# 686152
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 $300
The Cajamarca culture developed as a small independent state in the north highlands of Peru in wake of the Chavin horizon. Although little is known about this culture, the pottery of the region is distinct, with bold scrolls and geometric designs in brown, black, or red on cream-colored ground. Cajamarca remained independent until it was conquered by the Inca; in a twist of fate, Cajamarca was also the location of Pizarro's ambush of the Inca king Atahualpa in 1532, which marked the end of t ...click for details

Pre-Columbian Guanacaste - Nicoya Bowl, Costa Rica Catalogue: Antiques: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pottery: Pre 1492 item# 684625
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 SOLD
This is a simple, but elegant bowl from the Guanacaste-Nicoya zone of Costa Rica. It was executed in the Castillo Incised/Engraved style, a rare ceramic style produced only in late Pre-Columbian Costa Rica. This style is characterized by thin-walled, brown earthenware vessels with a rich, burnished chocolate slip. Rough incisions were carved into the bowl in geometric designs, into which white pigment was rubbed to provide contrast. For bowls in the same style, see numbers 116-117 in Katz, &quo ...click for details

Pre-Columbian Maya Eccentric of a Chieftan Catalogue: Archives: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pre AD 1000 item# 677263 (stock# pc07002)
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 SOLD
Maya eccentrics are tiny, fascinating works of art whose purpose is still poorly understood. Eccentrics are thin, finely-knapped ceremonial objects made of obsidian, chalcedony, flint or chert. They are typically assumed to have served ritual functions and are generally found in caches in ceremonial contexts. Eccentrics take many shapes, including real or mythological creatures and important symbols from the Maya world. They were produced over a very wide time span with Classic period production ...click for details

Pre-Columbian Maya Obsidian Eccentric of a Scorpion Catalogue: Archives: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pre AD 1000 item# 677261 (stock# pc07001)
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 SOLD
AGE: 150-900 AD CONDITION: Intact as shown. DIMENSIONS: 6.6 cm long

Pre-Columbian Maya Jaguar Fragment Catalogue: Archives: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pre AD 1000 item# 659227
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 SOLD
This is an interesting adorno fragment from a larger vessel that depicts a toothy jaguar. Jaguars were a potent symbol for the Maya. The concept of power provided by jaguars can be at the center of human societies in that it is identified with their most cultured ruling elites, while simultaneously marking the limits of human societies in that it represents the most dangerous of natural, external threats. See Saunders' "Icons of Power: Feline Symbolism in the Americas" for a discus ...click for details

Pre-Columbian Tarascan Miniature Tripod Bowl, Michoacan Catalogue: Antiques: Regional Art: Americas: Pre Columbian: Pottery: Pre 1492 item# 659221
click for details		Janus Antiquities (330) 612-3957 $200
This interesting little tripod bowl comes from the poorly understood Tarascan (or Purepecha) Empire, located in modern day Michoacan in West Mexico. These miniature tripod bowls appear to have been limited to elite burials, and were somehow a part of rituals associated with the official state religion practiced in the capital of Tzintzuntzan. Burial strata positions seem to conclusively date them to the Protohistoric period in Western Mexico (1400-1500 A.D.). However, to my knowledge, the precis ...click for details

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