Pre-Columbian, Peru (South Coast), Nazca culture, ca. 100 BCE to 800 CE. A matching pair of gorgeous ear spools, made from gold and silver. The central disc is thin 14K gold sheet, cut into openwork motifs of two birds in mid-flight inside a wide gold border. Each disc is set into a wider disc that is roughly 90% silver, and held in place at the back by a sheet of 95% silver wrapped into an open cylinder form to be inserted in the ear. Size of one: 1.1" W x 1.55" H (2.8 cm x 3.9 cm); 5.5" H (14 cm) on included custom stand. Total weight: 23 grams

The cosmology of the Nazca world revolved around the desert landscape of their home, and the need for rainfall in order to successfully practice agriculture. They believed that powerful creatures controlled the fecundity of the land and the presence of water: the killer whale in the sea, the feline on the land, and the condor in the sky. By wearing these highly valuable ear spools, their owner would have connected themselves to the power of their avian forms.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex Hirsch collection, Germany

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#131940

Wear and patina on surface, with very slight bending to form. Some areas of attachment on the back of the spools is fragile/slightly separated and may have been repaired in antiquity.