Pre-Columbian, Central America, Costa Rica, ca. 200 to 600 CE. A breathtaking Costa Rican jade pendant comprised of wonderfully translucent blue-green jade, expertly string cut on both sides to represent a stylized parrot-like tropical bird with a profile presenting concave eyes, a prominent beak, and crest, delineated feet projecting from his lower body, with tailfeathers detailed below. Biconically drilled beneath the eyes for suspension. Size: 1.25" W x 2.55" H (3.2 cm x 6.5 cm); modern cord is: 20" L (50.8 cm)

Costa Rica, along with Mesoamerica, is one of the two regions where jade was extensively carved in the Pre-Columbian world. The earliest example of worked jade, a pendant excavated from a burial site on the Nicoya Peninsula, dated to the mid-first millennium BCE. It appears that jade continued to be carved into personal ornaments, usually depicting animals such as birds, monkey, or frogs, until approximately 700 CE when gold became the favored material to fashion such ornaments.

Provenance: private southern California, USA collection, acquired in the 1970s to mid-1980s

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#140861

Intact, with light encrustation in the lower profile areas. Modern cord included.