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THBColima Redware Seated Hunchback Dwarf, ex-Sotheby's
Lot 273
About Seller
Artemis Gallery
686 S Taylor Ave, Ste 106
Louisville, CO 80027
United States
Selling antiquities, ancient and ethnographic art online since 1993, Artemis Gallery specializes in Classical Antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Near Eastern), Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal / Oceanographic art. Our extensive inventory includes pottery, stone, metal, wood, glass and textil...Read more
Live Auction in Progress ... Currently on Lot Estimate:
$4,000 - $6,000
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| $10,000 | $1,000 |
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About Auction
Live
By Artemis Gallery
Jan 7, 2020
Set Reminder
2020-01-07 10:00:00
2020-01-07 10:00:00
America/New_York
Bidsquare
Bidsquare : VARIETY AUCTION - Antiquities / Ethnographic
https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/variety-auction---antiquities-ethnographic-4787
Around the world & back in time - be amazed at the treasures you will find. Antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Italy and the Near East, Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal / Oceanic, Native American, Spanish Colonial, Russian Icons, Fine Art, much more! Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com
Around the world & back in time - be amazed at the treasures you will find. Antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Italy and the Near East, Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal / Oceanic, Native American, Spanish Colonial, Russian Icons, Fine Art, much more! Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com
View Full Catalog (478)
- Lot Description
**Originally Listed At $2500**
Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. Simple yet elegant in style and boasting sublime technique, a beautiful redware vessel depicting a male dwarf seated upon a flat base with curved, attenuated legs. The highly-burnished figure suffers from a severe case of dwarfism made evident by his dramatic forward-leaning posture and his malformed spine which almost protrudes through his back. Short, bent arms extend downwards from rounded shoulders, and a squat neck supports a bulbous head. Incised coffee-bean-shaped eyes, a triangular nose, slightly-parted puffy lips, and tab-shaped ears comprise the dwarf's visage, and a bulbous brow gradually tapers to a flared spout rim. In Pre-Columbian times, the deformities of hunchbacked people were believed to be signs from the divine that they were in fact special, chosen individuals who were touched by the supernatural. Size: 7.4" W x 11.4" H (18.8 cm x 29 cm).
Hunchback and dwarf individuals are very common in Colima sculpture - indeed, they heavily outnumber portrayals of women (and some have theorized that this relates to their relatively high social status in the society). Some scholars attribute the hunched back in West Mexican shaft tomb culture to a particular form of tuberculosis; the protruding shoulders of this example may be part of the figure's deformity or the result of an emaciated state.
Colima, located on Mexico's southwestern coast, was during this time part of the shaft tomb culture, along with neighbors to the north in Jalisco and Nayarit. In this culture, the dead were buried down shafts - 3 to 20 meters deep - that were dug vertically or near vertically through the volcanic tuff that makes up the geology of the region. The base of the shaft would open into one or more horizontal chambers with a low ceiling. These shafts were almost always dug beneath a dwelling, probably a family home, and seem to have been used as family mausoleums, housing the remains of many related individuals. This is a figure made to be placed inside those mausoleums, perhaps to mediate between the worlds of the living and the dead.
For a similar example of a Colima seated hunchback figure, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number X.2.431: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/318295
Provenance: private Florida, USA collection; ex-Sotheby's, New York Pre-Columbian Art Auction (sale 6500, November 22, 1993, lot 97)
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#137890Vessel professionally repaired from multiple large pieces with some resurfacing, overpainting, and restoration along break lines. Surface wear and abrasions commensurate with age, minor nicks to hands, feet, back, and head, with fading to some areas of pigmentation. Nice earthen deposits and manganese blooms across most surfaces.Condition
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