Colima Acrobat Whistle Figure in Handstand, MiniaturePre-Columbian, Mexico, Colima, ca....
Colima Acrobat Whistle Figure in Handstand, MiniaturePre-Columbian, Mexico, Colima, ca. 100 BCE – 250 CE. A miniature acrobat balanced upside down on his hands, legs folded back over his head, face thrust forward to meet the viewer. Solid buff pottery, hand-modeled, with applied ear spools, a banded protective headdress secured by a chin strap, and a knotted loincloth at the hips. Mineral deposits crust the surface. A whistle is worked into the head, so the figure sounds as well as performs, an unusual pairing of aerophone and figural sculpture. Contortionists of this type likely belonged to the ritual performers and shamanic entertainers depicted throughout West Mexican shaft-tomb ceramics, where inverted postures may signal trance or passage between worlds. Size: 4.25" H (10.8 cm H).
Colima ceramics come almost entirely from deep shaft tombs cut into the volcanic soils of Mexico's Pacific west, a mortuary tradition shared with neighboring Jalisco and Nayarit and running roughly from the last centuries BCE into the early centuries CE. The tomb assemblages read as portraits of a community: dogs, warriors, water carriers, musicians, and acrobats, all placed to accompany the dead.
Acrobats and contortionists are among the most sought-after subjects in the corpus. Their extreme postures, back-bent, inverted, or knotted upon themselves, are widely understood as more than entertainment; ethnographic parallels in Mesoamerica associate bodily inversion with altered states and with the shaman's traversal between the living world and the world below. That a whistle should be built into this performer's head is telling, since sound and breath were themselves instruments of that passage.
Provenance: Private New England Collection, acquired from Arte Primitivo. Ex. Collection of Albert J. and Monique Grant, NYC., acquired 1950’s - 1960’s.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73025Overall strong mineral deposits on the surface. A minor ancient chip on his right fingers and tip of left foot, otherwise excellent condition.
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
Colima Acrobat Whistle Figure in Handstand, MiniaturePre-Columbian, Mexico, Colima, ca. 100 BCE – 250 CE. A miniature acrobat balanced upside down on his hands, legs folded back over his head, face thrust forward to meet the viewer. Solid buff pottery, hand-modeled, with applied ear spools, a banded protective headdress secured by a chin strap, and a knotted loincloth at the hips. Mineral deposits crust the surface. A whistle is worked into the head, so the figure sounds as well as performs, an unusual pairing of aerophone and figural sculpture. Contortionists of this type likely belonged to the ritual performers and shamanic entertainers depicted throughout West Mexican shaft-tomb ceramics, where inverted postures may signal trance or passage between worlds. Size: 4.25" H (10.8 cm H).
Colima ceramics come almost entirely from deep shaft tombs cut into the volcanic soils of Mexico's Pacific west, a mortuary tradition shared with neighboring Jalisco and Nayarit and running roughly from the last centuries BCE into the early centuries CE. The tomb assemblages read as portraits of a community: dogs, warriors, water carriers, musicians, and acrobats, all placed to accompany the dead.
Acrobats and contortionists are among the most sought-after subjects in the corpus. Their extreme postures, back-bent, inverted, or knotted upon themselves, are widely understood as more than entertainment; ethnographic parallels in Mesoamerica associate bodily inversion with altered states and with the shaman's traversal between the living world and the world below. That a whistle should be built into this performer's head is telling, since sound and breath were themselves instruments of that passage.
Provenance: Private New England Collection, acquired from Arte Primitivo. Ex. Collection of Albert J. and Monique Grant, NYC., acquired 1950’s - 1960’s.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73025Overall strong mineral deposits on the surface. A minor ancient chip on his right fingers and tip of left foot, otherwise excellent condition.
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
