Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Jalisco, ca. 200 BCE to 200 CE. A matched pair of human effigy, polychrome pottery figures representing a couple of elite status, created in the San Juanito style. The seated male figure holds a long and decoratively painted staff of power with a globe terminus in his right hand and a painted offering bowl in his left hand. Clearly a person of import, he dons a turban and large ear ornaments upon his characteristically elongated visage; ceremonial scarification adorns his shoulders, painted or tattooed concentric circles surround his nipples, and the lower half of his body is painted with red pigment. The pendant seated female effigy figure is similarly bedecked with a turban, fanciful ear ornaments, and scarification upon her shoulders. She also wears coiled armlets, presents both hands with palms outward toward the viewer and boasts painted or tattooed breasts and a striated motif across her lower body. Both figures show expressive visages with well-modeled and incised features and finely painted black lash or tear markings and face paint or tattoos. This shaft tomb couple is quite impressive, not only for the adept technique and artistry required to create them, but also for their substantive iconographic content. Size: 19.5" H (49.5 cm) for largest

Provenance: Ex - Private Allen Davis collection, acquired in 2013; ex-Sylvia Meza, Whittier, CA, in her possession since 1972

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#115924

Repair to crack on neck of female and minor nicks to rim of male's bowl and right ear ornament, else both intact and quite excellent. Wonderful manganese deposits on surface.