Pre-Columbian Chorrera Jade Mortar - Jaguar Form

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Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Feb 18, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-02-18 10:00:00 2021-02-18 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-antiquities-asian-ethnographic-6373
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• Lot Description
  Pre-Columbian, Ecuador, Chorrera culture, Late Formative period, 1500 to 300 BCE. A stunning carved jade mortar in the form of an abstract jaguar naturally adorned in lovely mottled shades of mint green and caramel. Boasting a silky smooth surface, the zoomorphic vessel exhibits a lengthy snout with a gently raised nasal bridge, annular eyes, and a sizable mouth bearing two rows of intricately incised teeth. His sinuous tail extends opposite his head, carefully carved to spiral within itself. Supported by four petite feet, his square body has been hollowed out to serve as a mortar vessel. A horizontal drill hole pierces his neck, perhaps for suspension. Size: 7.25" L x 2.375" W x 2.5" H (18.4 cm x 6 cm x 6.4 cm)
  
  Although the Chorrera culture is not well known, researchers believe that this item and ones like it served as mortars for grinding the ingredients of hallucinogenic drugs that would be used by shamans to enter a religious trance. The form of the jaguar throughout the pre-Columbian world speaks to the transformation of the shaman into a half-human, half-animal spiritual creature.
  
  The value of jade in the Pre-Columbian world lay not only in its beauty, but also in its symbolic power; scholars believe its vedant color was associated with water and vegetation. The earliest example of worked jade, a pendant excavated from a burial site on the Nicoya Peninsula, dated to the mid-first millennium BCE. It appears that jade continued to be carved into personal ornaments, usually depicting anthropomorphic deities or animals such as birds, monkeys, crocodiles, serpents, or frogs, until approximately 700 CE when gold became the favored material to fashion such ornaments.
  
  See a similar example at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA (41.326).
  
  Provenance: private New York collection, New York, USA, acquired in 1966
  
  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.
  
  #162116

  Condition

  Repaired from two to five pieces. A few nicks. Expected light scratches, especially on base and interior, commensurate with age and use. Otherwise, intact and excellent.
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