**Originally Listed At $800**

Pre-Columbian, Northwest Costa Rica, Greater Nicoya, Middle Polychrome Period, ca. 800 to 1350 CE. The indigenous artists of the northwest coast of Costa Rica had an uncanny penchant for bringing magical creatures to life on their pottery. This Papagayo polychrome, footed, egg-shaped vessel features the head of a wild animal - perhaps a coatimundi with wide open eyes and parted lips revealing a mouth full of teeth - emerging from the upper exterior wall. Furthermore, the artisan of this vessel reveled in abstraction, covering the piece with intricately designed red and black motifs against a beige ground. Note the band of five eye motifs, followed by a wide register of six panels - three with what appear to be scenes of snakes emerging from an egg-like form surrounded by dotted vertical serpentine forms, and three with horizontal serpentine bands. Red and black striations border these registers, and finally, a band of abstract geometric zigzags adorns the pedestal base. Size: 8.5" W x 12.5" H (21.6 cm x 31.8 cm)

Papagayo Polychrome is a type of pottery characterized by small scale polychrome design motifs delineated in orange, black, and red pigment on a creamy buff slip, depicting geometric patterns and/or stylized representations of mythological animals - as we see on this example.

See a similar Costa Rican Papagayo Polychrome type coatimundi effigy vessel at the Florida Museum (https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/museum-voices/latin-catalog/category/intermediate-area/)

Provenance: private Oconto, Wisconsin, USA collection

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#136844

Stabilized crack running vertical down the rear wall and a shorter one directly opposite. Normal surface wear with scuffs to pigment commensurate with age. Scattered mineral deposits.