Panamanian Cocle Polychrome Spouted Vessel of Dwarf

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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, ca. 800 to 1000 CE. A hand-built and highly-burnished pottery vessel with a flat base, an apple-shaped body, a rounded shoulder with three protruding knobs, a narrow neck with a petite rim, and a projecting spout on the verso which doubles as a handle. The figurative vessel takes the form of a seated dwarf with raised arms and shoulders, a prominently hunched back, and a wide head with coffee-bean-shaped eyes and an upturned nose. The figure wears a cream-slipped tunic adorned with elaborate black spirals, triangles, and linear motifs, with sinuous, clawed arms that accentuated with purple pigment on the front, and a two-headed avian pendant hanging from around a barbed necklace. An intriguing example of fine figurative artistry from ancient Panama! Size: 5.375" W x 6.25" H (13.7 cm x 15.9 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 Tonosí pottery styles are identified by their the use of three paint colors which were black, red and white (or cream). The later Cubitá 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)
  
  Provenance: ex-New World Artifacts, Houston, Texas, USA; ex-private Collinsville, Illinois, USA collection; ex-Jack Hart collection, Poway, California, USA
  
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  #148841

  Condition

  Restoration to small areas of rim and tip of spout, with resurfacing and overpainting along new material and break lines. Light fading to original pigmentation commensurate with age, with minor abrasions and nicks to body, head, and spout, and heavy encrustations primarily inside body. Nice earthen deposits as well as great traces of original pigment throughout.
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