**First Time At Auction**

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Nazca culture, probably Phase 6 or 7, ca. 600 BCE to 800 CE. A charming vessel with a squat, rounded body and a bridge-shaped handle with a disembodied human head, perhaps a "trophy head," on one side. A very narrow spout rises from the other side of the strap handle. On either side of the body are mythical beings. This style of painting corresponds to later Nazca styles, when supernatural figures became the center of the artists' attention and their more fantastical elements - here two figures, the one still visible with an enormous zoomorphic mouth masks - are exaggerated over their human ones. Nazca pots were made using the coil and smoothing technique, never molded; their wide range of polychrome slips included pigments made with minerals like hematite, limonite, and magnetite, as well as white kaolin clay. Colored portions of the vessel were painted with brushes made from llama and alpaca fur, and then given black outlines. Size: 5.25" W x 4.75" H (13.3 cm x 12.1 cm)

Provenance: private Leonard collection, Virginia, USA, acquired before 1979

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#130937

Intact, with wear to the surface motifs, especially on one side. Tiny pinpoint hole on top of the head, probably as a result of the firing process.