Fine Cocle Polychrome Pottery Lidded Vessel

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Exceptional Day 2: Pre-Columbian & Tribal Art...

By Artemis Gallery

Oct 3, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-10-03 10:00:00 2019-10-03 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Day 2: Pre-Columbian & Tribal Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-day-2-pre-columbian-tribal-art-4453
Day 2 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional, museum-worthy examples of Pre-Columbian from the ancient Americas, Native American, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Spanish Colonial and fossils. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Central America, Panama, Gran Cocle, Macaracas style, ca. 850 to 1000 CE. A hand-built pottery jar of a sizable form with a round but stable base, a compressed spherical body with a sloped shoulder, a squat neck, and a form-fitting lid depicting an abstract human head. The cream-slipped body is adorned with concentric lines that surround the neck, four rectangular panels around the body, and solid red pigment on the neck and base. Within each body panel are abstract saurian creatures with bared fangs, slender snouts with curled noses, serrated scales, and coiled tails that terminate in a short barb. A broad saurian face spans between two panels with a wide mouth and concentric circle eyes. The human head - that doubles as the lid - features an expressive, red-painted visage beneath a slightly plateaued headdress bedecked with black, red, and purple motifs similar to those on the body. An exemplary vessel replete with sophisticated technique and elaborate decorations! Size (w/o lid): 8.8" diameter x 7.25" H (22.4 cm x 18.4 cm); 8" H (20.3 cm) with lid.
  
  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 the 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 back 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.)
  
  A stylistically-similar example, of a slightly larger size but without a lid, hammered for EUR 13,750 ($15,306.16) at Sotheby's, Paris "Collection Barbier-Mueller Art Precolombien" auction (March 22-23, 2-13, lot 138): https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/collection-barbier-mueller-pf1340/lot.138.html
  
  Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private Dallas, Texas, USA collection
  
  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.
  
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  #149193

  Condition

  Lid and body have minor abrasions, light encrustations, fading to areas of original pigmentation, and scattered areas of touch-up painting, otherwise intact and excellent. Great manganese blooms and nice traces of original pigment throughout.
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