**First Time At Auction**

Pre-Columbian, South Coast of Peru, Nazca, ca. 500 CE. A hand-built pottery vessel of a squat form presenting a sizable visage across the obverse side. The highly burnished vessel features a carinated spherical body with a round but stable base and has a wide shoulder as well as a dramatically flared rim. The broad countenance is illustrated with bushy brows above slender ovoid eyes and has a protruding nose, puffy lips, a black-painted mustache and goatee, and deep red and black eye bags that perhaps represent ritual tattooing or scarification. The rim exterior bears a repeating program of abstract ichthyic forms as well as steps along the top. Size: 4.125" W x 4.625" H (10.5 cm x 11.7 cm)

Provenance: ex-private Sarasota, Florida, USA collection, acquired before 1965

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#165162

One lengthy but stable hairline fissure running along the base and body. Abrasions and light fading to pigment, with light chipping to base, body, and rim, otherwise intact and very good. Great preservation to pigment throughout.