Lot 11A
Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, San Sebastian style, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A wonderful hand-built and highly-burnished pottery warrior of a sizable form seated upon bent legs and a pair of elongated cones protruding from the posterior. The man wears a large barrel-shaped suit of armor around his broad chest and above delineated genitalia, has a recessed collar which exposes his shoulders, and holds an enormous mace in his arms. The head boasts a stylized visage composed large almond-shaped eyes, a relatively naturalistic nose with delineated nostrils, a wide open mouth as if singing, speaking, or chanting, and ears adorned by multiple earrings, all beneath a horn-topped helmet. Densely-incised cross hatches embellish the helmet with texture and negative resist wavy and linear motifs adorn the mace, legs, and armor imbuing the figure with a more personalized presentation. Covered in lustrous red slip, this is a fabulous example of ancient shaft-tomb pottery! Size: 6.75" L x 8.375" W x 13.5" H (17.1 cm x 21.3 cm x 34.3 cm)
This figure stood guard in a shaft tomb, most likely placed so that it was facing outward around the perimeter of the tomb. Some scholars have theorized that this symbolically depicted a continuum between the worlds of the living and the dead. A brawny, militant protector with serious attitude from the ancients of West Mexico.
For a stylistically-similar example, please see The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accession number AC1996.146.23: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/seated-warrior-figure/6gEVFtnGF3FymQ
Provenance: private Southern California, USA collection; acquired in 1968 to 1970
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#149376
- Condition: Section with right forearm, mace, and left hand reattached. One leg reattached. Body repaired from several pieces with restoration over the break lines. Nice manganese deposits and burnishing marks grace the surface.
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