Colombian Muisca Gold & Amber Necklace -30 g

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Ancient / Ethnographic From Around the World

By Artemis Gallery

Jun 20, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-06-20 10:00:00 2019-06-20 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient / Ethnographic From Around the World https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic-from-around-the-world-4217
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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Colombia, Muisca, ca. 1000 to 1550 CE. A gorgeous necklace comprised of three strands of translucent amber seed beads (numbering in the hundreds) and five gold anthropomorphic beads (78% gold or equivalent to 18K+) known as tunjos. Cast via the lost wax (cire perdue) process, each stylized nude male figure presents a hollow head with applied facial features, wiry limbs with arms dramatically bent at the wrist, and genitals. Each expressive visage features coffee bean shaped eyes, a straight nose, and a coffee bean shaped mouth. Though nude, each male is decorated with ear spools, a necklace, a belt, and a headband. Strung in modern times, this fabulous necklace is perfectly wearable! Size: 16.5" L (41.9 cm); tallest gold figural bead measures 1.125" H (2.9 cm); gold quality: 78% gold or equivalent to 18K+; total weight: 30 grams
  
  Julie Jones' "The Art of Precolumbian Gold" discusses Muisca gold tunjos as follows: "Human images are the most common type of Muisca tunjo, the class of metal objects found in the high Andes around Bogota, the present capital of Colombia, established by the Spaniards in 1539.The figures were used as votive objects; they were always differentiated by sex, and a great amount of specific detail was worked into them. Mothers and children, warriors, and coca chewers are common tunjo representations. Published information on the specific groupings of the objects as they were cached - the chief manner of offering - is scant. The Museo del Oro in Bogota has documented a good-sized group said to be the contents of a cache that was found shallowly buried in an open field in Funza, Cundinamarca . . ."
  
  Jones continues with a discussion of Muisca goldsmithing techniques and practices, "Muisca tunjos were not worked after casting. Flaws were not corrected, excess metal was not removed, surfaces were not polished; they were left as they came out of the mold. Even molding sprues could remain. . . The spontaneity of manufacture plus the artistic means . . . and the manner in which they were used, set the Muisca tunjos apart from other Precolumbian gold objects." (Ed. Julie Jones, "The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection." Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1985, p. 166)
  
  Provenance: ex-estate of Wylda Hammond Nelson, MD, Davis, California, 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.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #144536

  Condition

  Gold beads are in excellent condition save minor casting flaws. Amber beads are also excellent save slight age wear. All beads are ancient - strung in modern times with modern fittings.
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