Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, ca. 200 BCE to 200 CE. A lively hand-built and modeled terracotta anthropomorphic effigy tripod vessel. The upper shoulder of the vessel is adorned with three human heads whose visages feature coffee bean shaped eyes, prominent noses, and open mouths. The personages are cleverly linked by their elongated arms, formed from clay coils with incised markings, and their hands which are held behind each of the three heads. The legs of this vessel have feet with delineated toes at the terminals. A fascinating work of a creative vision in nicely burnished brownware. Size: 11" (27.94 cm) x 7-3/4" (19.69 cm).

The Jalisco is one of the three major West Mexican indigenous cultures that partook in the shaft tomb tradition, the other being the Colima 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.

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#108061

Normal surface wear. One leg reattached. One missing toes. Else very good.