Lot 156
Pre-Columbian, Valley of Mexico, Teotihuacan, Tlamimilolpa-Metepec phase, ca. 200 to 750 CE. A striking, incredibly rare vessel made of highly translucent banded alabaster with nub-like legs and two flared-sided bowls with graceful, symmetrical forms. The stone used to make it would have come from near the modern-day village of Tecali in Puebla state. Size: 6.8" W x 2.8" H (17.3 cm x 7.1 cm)
Teotihuacan is the largest pre-Columbian site in the Americas, called the City of the Gods by the Aztecs, who were as fascinated by its ruins and lost culture as we are today. The artisans of Teotihuacan were masters at carving stone. A very similar (and also lidless) platform vessel was found at the Highland Maya center of Kaminaljuyu in Guatemala in a royal tomb of the Protoclassic/ Early Classic period (ca. 250 to 350 CE). This was a highly desirable luxury item traded in from the great center of Teotihuacan. Interestingly, that example still has a band of green pigment around it, indicating that it and this item were likely once brightly painted.
See a similar example in "Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods", Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Fig. 23, p. 183, also a description of several similar ones in "Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volumes 10 and 11: Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica", ed. Gordon F. Ekholm and Ignacio Bernal, 2015.
Provenance: ex-private Texas, USA collection of a former curator of the Kimbell Art Museum, early 1970s
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#150461
- Condition: One section of the rim has been professionally restored; this is well done and difficult to see. Rich deposits on surface and a few small chips, nicks, and scratches commensurate with age.
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