Pre-Columbian, South Coast Peru, Nazca culture, ca. 100 BCE to 800 CE. A dark wood, hand-carved tray or tablet, used for holding snuff. The bowl is shallow and rectangular, with a raised depiction of an abstract jaguar's head on the end opposite the bowl. The jaguar's form is established by sweeping, incised lines, with elongated, triangular ears and a wide, rounded snout. It has deep-set, round eyes inlaid with flat discs of dark brown shell. Size: 3" W x 7.5" H (7.6 cm x 19 cm)

Snuff trays were part of the elaborate battery of objects carefully manufactured by ancient Andeans in order to ingest a ground drug known as vilca or huilca, found in southern Peru and Bolivia, and obtained from the beans of the tree Anadenanthera colubrina. We know of these trays from burials, where they were placed as offerings and perhaps to provision the dead alongside inhalation tubes and other paraphernalia. Feline heads are some of the most iconographically important, and therefore common, artistic themes on snuff trays from this region. They are associated with the use of psychoactive substances that could "transform" a shaman or priest into a feline.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-Westermann collection, Germany

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#123562

Patina on surface from age and wear. Very slight surface cracking/scratching.