**Originally Listed At $500**
Pre-Columbian, Honduras, Maya, Late Classic Period, ca. 550 to 900 CE. A hand-built pottery bowl resting on a concave base. A solid stripe of brown pigment lines the inside of the rim, and the entire bowl is presented with a pale orange ground. The exterior displays a register of 3 highly-stylized jaguars with stocky legs, conical tails, spotted bodies, and large heads with pointed ears and hanging tongues. Each feline is separated from its neighbors by a column of stacked 'S' forms and are topped with a solid vermilion band outlined in dark-brown. Size: 6.375" W x 3.3" H (16.2 cm x 8.4 cm).
The form of the jaguar was revered throughout the Pre-Columbian New World as the mightiest wild feline and was used as a symbol of power and kingship. In Classic Maya art, the jaguar is associated with lordly might and as an avatar for the gods. Many rulers during this time took jaguar names: Shield-Jaguar and Bird-Jaguar, for example. One of the Hero Twins described in the Quiche book Popol Voh, the most famous Maya text, is named Xbalanque, which is almost certainly derived from the word for jaguar, "balam", and that twin is shown in art with jaguar pelt markings on his face and body.
Provenance: private southwestern Pennsylvania, USA collection
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#144753
Condition
Professionally repaired from a few large pieces with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines. Small nicks and chips to rim, body, and base, with fading to original pigmentation, and a few small excisions. Nice earthen deposits, manganese blooms, and root marks throughout.