Pre-Columbian, Jaina/Campeche Mexico, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 600 to 850 CE. A mold-made pottery figural rattle in the form of a standing priest with his or her hands pressed to the stomach. He or she wears a huge, double strand beaded necklace, a layered costume with a fabulous Lando Calrissian-style blue cape over a white tunic and red decoration on the wrists, and a tall headdress above large earrings. The rattle is still fully functional, and the pigment remaining is in excellent condition, especially the blue, which often does not preserve as well as the red and white. Size: 4.45" W x 7.55" H (11.3 cm x 19.2 cm); 8.95" H (22.7 cm) on included custom stand.

Figures like this one, from an island off the Yucatan peninsula, are noted for their lifelike faces and their immense detail of costume. The clothing that this figure wears almost certainly copies the real clothing of a person in the Late Classic Maya period. These figures probably represent actual, elite people and seem likely to have been produced in Campeche and brought to Jaina Island to be buried with the dead.

Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection

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#134899

Base has been drilled into to attach stand; otherwise the piece is intact. Rattle is still functional. A tiny nick or possibly flaw from the mold at the top corner of the headdress. Excellent preservation of pigment.