Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima, ca. 200 BCE to 200 CE. A grand terracotta seated figure wearing a horned headdress, holding a large cup in his upraised hands, with nicely modeled facial features and pierced ears for suspending ornaments. Size: 17" (43.18 cm) H.

Colima is one of the three major West Mexican indigenous cultures that partook in the shaft tomb tradition, the other being the Jalisco and the Nayarit. In his classic work of 1957, Indian Art of Mexico and Central America, anthropologist Miguel Covarrubias described the art-culture of the indigenous of West Mexico as "a compact and fascinating group of cultures with and important art based upon the freehand modeling of small and large hollow clay figures and effigy vessels, made in the Pre-Classic tradition, as offerings to bury with the dead" (p. 87).



Provenance: Ex-private Houston, TX collection acquired at auction or local gallery between 1982 and 1994.

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

#108255

Right leg reattached. Loss to tip of headdress. Expected surface wear. Overall good condition.