Pre-Columbian, Central America, Costa Rica, Guanacaste/Nicoya region, ca. 100 to 500 CE. A hand-carved omphacite jade celt of impressive size depicting a standing figure with arms clasped across the abdomen, perhaps a shaman. Deeply drilled cavities create the eyes, mouth corners, earspools, headband eyelets, and beard ornamentation while delicately incised striations create dazzling curvilinear motifs across the beard and brow. A suspension hole drilled laterally through the neck shows how this was worn as a grand pendant. The seam along the back illustrates how this jade slab was severed from a larger block, and the surfaces are finely polished to a nice luster. Size: 2.25" W x 5.125" H (5.7 cm x 13 cm)

The value of jade in the Pre-Columbian world lay in its symbolic power; scholars believe its color was associated with water and vegetation. Costa Rica, along with Mesoamerica, is one of the two regions where jade was extensively carved in the Pre-Columbian world. The earliest example of worked jade, a pendant excavated from a burial site on the Nicoya Peninsula, dated to the mid-first millennium BCE. It appears that jade continued to be carved into personal ornaments, usually depicting anthropomorphic deities or animals such as birds, monkeys, crocodiles, serpents, or frogs, until approximately 700 CE when gold became the favored material to fashion such ornaments.

A smaller example hammered for EUR 8,750 ($8,600.90) at Christie's, Paris "A Quantum of History: The Prigogine Collection" auction (sale 16282, April 9, 2018, lot 34).

Provenance: ex-Marc Amiguet Schmitt estate, Amiguet's Ancient Art, Evansville, Indiana, USA, acquired prior to January 1, 2010

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#174974

Repaired with small chips and resurfaced infill material along some break lines. Very light abrasions from polished surfaces, with possible retooling to some finer incised decorations. Great preservation to overall form and nice figural details.