Gran Coclé Polychrome Jar | Macaracas Saurian Motifs

Pre-Columbian, Panama, Gran Cocle, ca. 900–1100 CE. A globular earthenware jar, intact, with an everted rim above a rounded body decorated with bands of reddish orange slip and dark line work. Around the shoulder and belly, interlocking scrolls, plumed volutes, and hatched panels resolve into stylized saurian imagery, depicting abstracted crocodilians with serrated dentition, a motif associated with Central Panamanian art. The vessel is worked in the Macaracas style, a phase of the Gran Coclé polychrome tradition in which figural forms are rendered through curvilinear geometric patterning. Vessels of this form served domestic and ceremonial purposes and are documented from burial mounds in the region. The saurian motif is associated in Gran Coclé iconography with fertility and power. Size: 9.3" D x 7.8" H (23.6 cm D x 19.8 cm H).

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection 2025. Ex Los Angelese, CA collection, 2025. Ex Alexander Barakat collection, Los Angeles, CA, acquired 2023. Ex Barakat Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA. before 2005.

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Item #

202624

Condition
Stable fissure extending from rim to base. Some light surface wear commensurate with age and retouching to pigmrents in a few areas. Otherwise, intact and excellent with impressive remaining pigments and detail.

Buyer's Premium
30%