Costa Rican Jadeite Anthropomorphic Pendant with Animal HeaddressPre-Columbian, Costa Rica,...
Costa Rican Jadeite Anthropomorphic Pendant with Animal HeaddressPre-Columbian, Costa Rica, ca. 500–1000 CE. A small pendant of grayish-green jadeite, carved as a standing figure with a human body and a semiabstract zoomorphic head crowned by an animal-head headdress. The lapidary worked the flat slab in stepped planes, cutting openwork voids at the arms and between the legs to articulate limbs from silhouette alone, and drilling a suspension hole through both legs with a second through one shoulder. Rendered at miniature scale, the piece was made to hang against the chest, where jade of this hue carried associations with water, maize, and rank. Such ornaments were among the most valued goods in the Costa Rican jade tradition, worn by persons of standing and frequently interred with them. Size: 2.625" W x 0.938" H (6.7 cm W x 2.4 cm H).
Costa Rica's jade horizon, concentrated in Guanacaste and the Atlantic Watershed, produced no jadeite of its own: the raw stone traveled south from the Motagua Valley of Guatemala, and some Costa Rican pendants were recut from imported Maya celts and plaques, their original incised faces sliced away. Local carvers developed a distinct idiom nonetheless, favoring flat axe-god forms, string-sawn edges, and hollow-cane drilling with abrasive slurry, techniques that leave the tapering perforations and squared interior cuts seen on pieces of this type.
The hybrid human-animal subject belongs to a widespread Isthmian vocabulary of transformation, in which a wearer's supernatural identity is signaled by the creature perched on or fused with the head. By the close of the first millennium CE jade largely gave way to gold as the prestige material of the region, making earlier lapidary work of this kind the terminal expression of a several-century tradition.
Provenance: Collection of Jimmy Belilty, Miami. Acquired from Latin American Artist Carlos Poveda, Caracas and Paris, 1980 - 1990.
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 #73101Intact, excellent condition.
Costa Rican Jadeite Anthropomorphic Pendant with Animal HeaddressPre-Columbian, Costa Rica, ca. 500–1000 CE. A small pendant of grayish-green jadeite, carved as a standing figure with a human body and a semiabstract zoomorphic head crowned by an animal-head headdress. The lapidary worked the flat slab in stepped planes, cutting openwork voids at the arms and between the legs to articulate limbs from silhouette alone, and drilling a suspension hole through both legs with a second through one shoulder. Rendered at miniature scale, the piece was made to hang against the chest, where jade of this hue carried associations with water, maize, and rank. Such ornaments were among the most valued goods in the Costa Rican jade tradition, worn by persons of standing and frequently interred with them. Size: 2.625" W x 0.938" H (6.7 cm W x 2.4 cm H).
Costa Rica's jade horizon, concentrated in Guanacaste and the Atlantic Watershed, produced no jadeite of its own: the raw stone traveled south from the Motagua Valley of Guatemala, and some Costa Rican pendants were recut from imported Maya celts and plaques, their original incised faces sliced away. Local carvers developed a distinct idiom nonetheless, favoring flat axe-god forms, string-sawn edges, and hollow-cane drilling with abrasive slurry, techniques that leave the tapering perforations and squared interior cuts seen on pieces of this type.
The hybrid human-animal subject belongs to a widespread Isthmian vocabulary of transformation, in which a wearer's supernatural identity is signaled by the creature perched on or fused with the head. By the close of the first millennium CE jade largely gave way to gold as the prestige material of the region, making earlier lapidary work of this kind the terminal expression of a several-century tradition.
Provenance: Collection of Jimmy Belilty, Miami. Acquired from Latin American Artist Carlos Poveda, Caracas and Paris, 1980 - 1990.
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 #73101Intact, excellent condition.
