Central America, Mexico, Guerrero, Nahua culture, ca. late 19th to early 20th century CE. A superb hand carved wood festival mask with grinning Cheshire-like feline face. The brows and whiskers are made from porcupine or boar hair bristles. The cat is a stylized jaguar /tiger with characteristically anthropomorphic features. This type of mask is worn during the "Dance of the Tiger" performed throughout Mexico to protect livestock and farmers from feline predators. While tigers are not native to the Americas, the indigenous and Nahua people were very familiar with jaguars or "tecuani" which translates to something like "large beast / people biter." Early Spanish colonizers likely called the big cats "tigers" which they were probably more familiar with, but the "tiger" dance has ancient roots in Pre-Columbian cultures such as the Olmec who revered jaguars as supernatural beings and warrior figures. Size: 10.3" L x 7" W (26.2 cm x 17.8 cm)

Provenance: private Goldstein collection, Denver, Colorado, USA. The Goldstein's have amassed their collection over the past six decades.

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#177102

Nicks and chips to pigments and loss to wood on top of mask verso, otherwise intact. Discoloration and some surface staining. Hair attachments might be a modern replacement but consistent with materials used in Nahua masks.