Pre-Columbian, Peru, Moche, ca. 100 to 600 CE. An extremely large gilded copper, convex ornament representing the Sun - its elegant convex, orb-like form with large round bosses lining the periphery to create a beaded border. Moche ceramic figures representing lords oftentimes depict the elite figures wearing such sun disks to symbolize their origins as divine entities - descending from the Sun. Size: 7.25" in diameter (18.4 cm); 8.875" H (22.5 cm) on included custom stand.

Interestingly, centuries later when Christopher Columbus was sailing along the coast of Central America, he and his team traded with the indigenous for what they called "mirrors of gold". These were worn around the natives' necks. Although there are no recorded descriptions of these objects, it is possibly that they looked similar to this type, as forms and styles spread throughout the Pre-Columbian world. For more about this exchange, see Fernando Colon, "The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1959.

It should be said that any goldwork from the Moche is exceedingly rare, as their treasures were targeted by plunderers during Colonial times. Heidi King of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York offers the following explanation in "The Art of Precolumbian Gold": "The Mochica or Moche as they are also known, built their capital in the dry, coastal valley of Moche, where the main construction was the Huaca del Sol, the so-called Pyramid of the Sun, the largest adobe structure built in Pre-Columbian South America. The great pyramid, made of over 143 million adobe bricks, was clearly visible and easily accessible during Colonial times, and it received extraordinary attentions from early treasure hunters (Bray this volume). As a result of such attentions, little of the wealth in precious metals that the Moche peoples are believed to have possessed remains in its ancient form today. Those works that do remain are all the more important because of their rarity." (The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection" edited by Julie Jones. Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1985, p. 212)

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex Bettina Schwimmer Collection, Chicago, Illinois, USA

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#132544

Expected surface wear with some losses to the gilding as shown. The form is in very nice condition save an indentation to the central right of the face. Areas of green and russet patina, especially to the perimeter but also to minute areas of the interior as shown.