2 Lovely Cocle Polychrome Pottery Vessels w/ Reptiles

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Exceptional Antiquities Ethnographic Fine Art...

By Artemis Gallery

Mar 24, 2022

Set Reminder 2022-03-24 10:00:00 2022-03-24 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Antiquities Ethnographic Fine Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-antiquities-ethnographic-fine-art-9057
Museum-worthy examples of classical antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Near Eastern), Viking, Far East / Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Native American, Spanish Colonial, Fossils, Ancient Jewelry, Fine / Visual Arts, so much more! Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Panama, Gran Cocle, ca. 800 to 1000 CE. A fine pair of polychrome vessels: a large dish and bulbous storage jar both painted with abstract reptilian creatures! The dish has a broad and shallow basin that one rested a pedestal foot, now absent, slipped in a warm orange hue. The rim and interior surface are painted in a beige that contrasts with the orange, purple, and black pigments coursing across that create an abstract and zoomorphic and anthropomorphic hybrid figure with four legs, rake like claws, and a saurian head with a long snout lined with teeth and a coiled tongue, flanked by avian heads. The globular jar is slipped in orange then painted with a beige register and curvilinear black and purple repeating bands with 6 abstract toothy, reptilian heads in the center. The purple on both is indicative of the Macaracas style while the spines and claws allude to the dangerous or protective symbolism of the creature. Size (dish): 11" Diameter x 3" H (27.9 cm x 7.6 cm); (jar): 5.5" L x 6" H (14 cm x 15.2 cm)
  
  According to scholar Samuel Kirkland Lothrop, "The Gran Cocle culture is a Pre-Columbian archaeological culture that gets its name from the area from which it was based, the now present-day Cocle province of Panama. The Gran Cocle term applies to a loosely studied group of Native American sub-cultures in this region, identified by their pottery styles. The overall period spans a time from 150 B.C. to the end in the 16th century A.D. upon Spanish contact. The most ancient culture is the La Mula period from 150 B.C. to 300 A.D. The La Mula and later Monagrillo and Tonosi pottery styles are identified by their use of three paint colors which were black, red and white (or cream). The later Cubita style saw the emergence of the use of four colors. The styles of Conte, Macaracas and Joaquín added purple to their palette and this hue ranged from grayish tones to red purple. The use of purple disappeared in the subsequent styles of Parita and El Altillo and the paint style reverted to the use of three colors. Most notable in the artistic renderings are the overt use of geometric designs." (For more information, see Armand Labbe, "Guardians of The Life Stream: Shamans, Art and Power in Prehispanic Central Panama." Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, University of Washington Press, 1995)
  
  For a similar example please see the Emory University, Michael C. Carlos Museum website, object number: 2015.039.012.
  
  Provenance: private Hidden Valley Lake, California, USA collection, September 27, 2019, Lot 679; ex-MBA Seattle Auction, Renton, Washington, USA
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  PLEASE NOTE: Due to recent increases of shipments being seized by Australian & German customs (even for items with pre-UNESCO provenance), we will no longer ship most antiquities and ancient Chinese art to Australia & Germany. For categories of items that are acceptable to ship to Australia or Germany, please contact us directly or work with your local customs brokerage firm.
  
  Display stands not described as included/custom in the item description are for photography purposes only and will not be included with the item upon shipping.
  
  #170470

  Condition

  Jar is repaired and restored with overpainting and infill to break lines. Some fading and chips to pigments, but motif is well preserved. Repairs are well done and not easily discernable on some areas of the exterior. Dish is missing pedestal foot, and this is an old loss. Rest of dish basin is intact with age expected surface wear, chips to rim, and fading to pigments.
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