Sold - Aug 08

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre AD 1000: item #551319
Sold - Aug

A very expressive and carefully modelled pottery figure of a naked standing male. The figure stands with his legs wide apart, wearing only a girdle or belt and a pair of large circular earrings. The head is modelled with particularly strong features, accentuated by the coffee-bean shape eyes and pronounced nose. Mexico, Tlatilco Culture, middle to late 1st Millennium BC. Right leg re-attached, tip of right arm lost, losses to the applied hair over the head. Size: 9.8 x 5.4 cms. Ex. private ... Click for details

Nice Pre-Columbian Anthropoid Jar, Vicus, Peru

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre AD 1000: item #537744

Until the 1960's, very little was known about the Vicus culture, which was located in the far north of Peru. Vicus ceramics are stylistically similar to those produced during the earliest phases of Moche development. Like early Moche ceramics, the sculptural forms are both compact and rigid. While the Moche preferred the use of colored slips, the Vicus adopted a method of oxygen reduction or negative resist to apply designs, a technique also used by the highland Narino and Carchi cultures of Col... Click for details

Pre-Columbian Jamacoaque Maternal Figure

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre AD 1000: item #537193

While the majority of Jamacoaque sculpture is concerned with shamans and transformation themes, a noteworthy minority addresses domestic relationships, oftentimes in a very touching manner. This is an example of the latter, featuring a mother cradling an infant on her lap. While most Jamacoaque figures do an amazing job at capturing people and animals in motion, it's far less common to see quiet, still scenes like this one. ... Click for details

Pre-Columbian Stirrup Vessel of a Coca Chewer, Salinar

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre AD 1000: item #537187

The Early Horizon period (about 850 B.C. to 100 A.D.) marked Peru's greatest developments in weaving, pottery, agriculture, religion and architecture. Although we tend to think of the later Moche, Nazca, and Chimu cultures when we think of superb Andean pottery, these cultures all owe a debt to an earlier ceramic tradition developed by the Salinar between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D. Salinar ceramics show advanced firing techniques, sculptural forms characterized by graceful, long spouts and stirrup ha... Click for details

Pre-Columbian Jamacoaque Shaman in Transformation

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre AD 1000: item #537181

This very interesting figure shows a Jamacoaque shaman midway through completion of his transformation into a ferocious jaguar. Saunders' "Icons of Power: Feline Symbolism in the Americas" notes that jaguar symbolism is explicitly associated with shamanism. Those who claim some of the jaguar's power (such as through shamanic association) also thereby classify themselves both within and on the margins of human structures of power. Jaguar power, or the concept of power provided by jaguars, can be ... Click for details

Excellent Pre-Columbian Stirrup Vessel, Salinar Culture

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre AD 1000: item #537166

The Early Horizon period (about 850 B.C. to 100 A.D.) marked Peru's greatest developments in weaving, pottery, agriculture, religion and architecture. Although we tend to think of the later Moche, Nazca, and Chimu cultures when we think of superb Andean pottery, these cultures all owe a debt to an earlier ceramic tradition developed by the Salinar between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D. Salinar ceramics show advanced firing techniques, sculptural forms characterized by graceful, long spouts and stirrup h... Click for details

Stunning Narino (Tuza) Footed Bowl, Pre-Columbian

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre 1492: item #537162

The first archaeological excavations in the Nariño region of modern Colombia occurred barely 30 years ago, so little is conclusively known about this area. What does seem evident is that three distinct cultural groups occupied the region: the Piartal, Tuza, and Capuli cultures. (However, we typically see the output of these three cultures inappropriately lumped together as generic 'Nariño' on dealers' websites.) This bowl was produced by the Tuza. Although opinions differ on the interrelationshi... Click for details

Chimu Blackware Llama Vessel, Pre-Columbian

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre 1492: item #537149

The Chimú culture dominated northern Peru from around 800 A.D. through the rise of the Inca in the 1400's A.D. The Chimú artistic tradition is more about continuity than change, with many similarities in iconography to the Moche culture that the Chimú displaced. Where the Chimú did diverge from previous tradition was in the production of their art. Chimú ceramics were mold made in industrial quantities, especially the simpler vessels intended for domestic uses. Chimú pottery is largely smoked bl... Click for details

Pre-Columbian Figure of a Shaman, Jamacoaque, Ecuador

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre AD 1000: item #537127

This excellent Jamacoaque figure from Ecuador represents an elder shaman about to undertake a drug-induced transformation, a common motif in Jamacoaque art. He is elaborately decorated with a nosering, headdress, and necklaces, and he is holding hallucinogenic paraphanalia in each hand (a snuff tube and small jar) to aid in his transformation, most likely into a ferocious jaguar. Saunders' "Icons of Power: Feline Symbolism in the Americas" notes that jaguar symbolism is explicitly associated wit... Click for details

Unusual 19thC Spanish Colonial White Metal Tankard

Archives: Regional Art: Americas: South American Pre 1900: item #522034
Ch0635

An interesting and attractive Spanish colonial white metal cup or tankard with a zoomorphic handle and an incised band of stylised floral and geometric decoration. Height: 4 ¼ in. Probably S. American, 19th cent.

The base is incised with the initials RM, WW and JMA. No damage.