Description:

Pre-Columbian, southern Mexico and Guatemala, Maya Late Classic Period, ca. 550 to 900 CE. A burnished terracotta vessel in the form of a crustacean, either a shrimp or langostino ("small lobster" in Spanish), with anthropomorphic hands grasping a snouted mouth. The vessel, colored in hues of beige, orange, and burgundy, displays protruding eyes in a cone-shaped head, a set of four conjoined legs on each side of a bulbous shelled body, with a flared opening on top of the back, and a paddle-shaped "v-notch" tail with two miniature stabilizing flippers on either side. Symbolically, crustaceans and other shellfish were representative of the underworld and the cycles of water and the atmosphere, life and death, and rebirth and rejuvenation. A very fine example of animal-centric Mayan art! Size: 1.25" L x 5.125" W x 2.375" H (3.2 cm x 13 cm x 6 cm)

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection

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#126835

  • Condition: Surface wear commensurate with age, minor pitting and roughness to details, and black coloration at mouth of opening, else intact and excellent.

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September 14, 2017 7:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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