Description:

Pre-Columbian, South Coast Peru, Nazca, ca. 200 to 400 CE. A fine pair of miniature portrait face maskettes comprised of small textile swaths and fragments of varying colors of shell. Each semicircular face is defined by orange-red spondylus shell cheeks and noses, diamond-shaped nacre eyes with drilled pupils, and dark-brown stone mouths. The fragments are adhered with mud to similarly shaped stone pieces on the verso. The larger mask exhibits a small textile patch behind the head as well as beads made from shell in blue, purple, and orange-yellow hues. Custom museum-quality display stand included. Size of largest (w/ beads): 1.125" W x 1.375" H (2.9 cm x 3.5 cm); 3.5" H (8.9 cm) on included custom stand.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; exhibited at the Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA

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#144346

  • Condition: Headdress fragments on larger head are loose. Both maskettes have minor abrasions and small chips around peripheries, and light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits throughout. Old inventory label taped behind smaller head.

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February 21, 2019 7:00 AM MST
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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