Pre-Columbian, Valley of Mexico, Aztec, ca. 1200 to 1532 CE. A fascinating and rare hand carved shell ornament with a separately carved eagle head set into the upper panel. The grooved spatulate shaped tip tapers slightly and curves outward like a long tongue. The upper flared finial is incised with curvilinear motifs, earspools, and a headdress that frames the eagle head with red pigments highlighting the earspools. The eagle inserts into the drilled socket hole via a cylindrical plug and is held in place by a modern thread. The eyes are inlaid with turquoise and black stone disc beads that contrast starkly against the creamy white shell. This incredible implement may have functioned as an extravagant lip labret - the headdress top fits the contours of the lower lip, and the eagle is perfectly situated to insert into wearer's chin. The elongated spatulate tip likely represents a tongue, and the pronged top of the headdress projected upward like fangs. Size: 5" L x 2" W (12.7 cm x 5.1 cm); 5.75" H (14.6 cm) on included custom stand.

According to the Princeton University Art Museum's website: "Among the Aztec, jewelry made of precious materials marked its wearer's high social status and conveyed certain ideas about his or her character. The labret, or lip-plug, was inserted through a pierced hole in the lower lip and qualified the wearer's speech and breath as precious. The Aztec term for king, tlahtoani, means "speaker," attesting to the high value of refined, poetic rhetoric in Aztec culture. Many peoples of Mesoamerica also believed in a soul which resided in one's breath; decorating the openings in the head, including the nostrils, mouth, and ears, signaled the preciousness and vitality of a person's soul. The materials used in these ornaments came from distant lands through the Aztec's expansive trade network. Turquoise, for example, originated in modern-day New Mexico, whereas jade was procured from the border of Guatemala and Honduras."

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection, before 2010; ex-Splendors of the World, Haiku, Hawaii, USA, before 2010; ex-Fred Bauer collection, New York City, New York, USA, 1960-2000

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#173409

Light wear and nicks to spatula groove, but overall choice and excellent. Natural shell pitting on verso and ossification. Nice remains of red pigments. Eagle head suspended from central opening via modern string.