Pre-Columbian, Mexico, Tehuacan Valley, Nahua culture, Post-Classic period, ca. 1200 to 1521 CE. An interesting pottery effigy censer lid, mold-formed and finely detailed, depicting a stylized anthropomorphic figure. Shown seated, the hollow figure has a large conical body with sloping shoulders and tubular arms resting on bent knees. The figure wears a fringed collar around a thick neck, with ovoid eyes, an aquiline nose, parted mouth, and enormous ears with accompanying ear spools defining the expressive countenance. An ornate headdress with a trio of bulb-shaped ornaments and a triangular crest caps the well-modeled head, and sculpted designs on the verso suggest it may have doubled as a shamanic mask. Covered in a natural chalky-white pigment save for the face and neck, this is a rare and unusual example from ancient Mexico! Size: 7" W x 10.375" H (17.8 cm x 26.4 cm).

The Nahua people of the Tehuacan Valley – in the southeast corner of the state of Puebla near Oaxaca – produced a myriad of unique and unusual censer covers during the last few centuries prior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521 CE. The censer is a brazier created to hold and slowly conflagrate incenses. The incense most-commonly used throughout the Nahua peoples was a sticky tree resin known as "copal," and yielded copious amounts of smoke when burnt. Tehuacan censer covers, referred to as "xantiles," typically took the form of a hollow anthropomorphic figure and were placed atop the rim of a censer. The smoke produced from the copal incense escaped through the gaping mouth of the figure and was thought to be a symbolic means of communicating with the gods. The figures and mouths took a variety of forms, from simple human depictions to fantastical figures with ornate costumes and fanged mouths.

For a fantastical example of a Nahua xantil censer cover, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1978.412.10: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/309861

Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-John O'Hara collection, acquired 1950s-1960s

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#134106

Arms, body, and legs repaired from multiple pieces with some small losses, areas of restoration, and light adhesive residue along break lines. Surface wear and abrasions commensurate with age as expected, small chips to legs, arms, body, and head, with some discoloration and fading to pigmentation, and fading to some finer details. Nice earthen deposits throughout.