Inca Miniature Capacocha Female Figures, Silver and Shell

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Inca, ca. 1400–1521 CE. A pair of miniature female effigies, one cast in solid silver, the other carved from warm orange and cream spondylus shell. Both stand frontally with hands drawn up to chest and belly, breasts and navel lightly modelled, faces reduced to broad brows, wedge noses and pursed mouths. Each wears a long incised hairdo falling in braided strands down the back, the shell example finished with fine parallel grooves. Figures of this scale were dressed in miniature textiles and deposited in high-altitude caches as offerings, likely to Pachamama and the mountain deities. The silver retains blue-green cuprous bloom in its recesses. Mounted together on a custom pedestal base. Larger: 1.625" H (4.1 cm H); Smaller: 1.5" H (3.8 cm H).

Miniature human effigies in silver, gold, and spondylus shell are among the most consistently recovered objects from Inca mountaintop shrines, where they accompanied the capacocha rites: state-sponsored offerings that carried children, camelids, and precious goods to the summits of the Andes. Excavated examples at Llullaillaco and Cerro El Plomo were found still clothed in woven miniature garments pinned with tiny tupu shawl pins, a reminder that these figures were understood as animate participants rather than symbols.

Spondylus, the thorny oyster of the warm Ecuadorian littoral, was the single most valued substance in Andean ritual economy, traded hundreds of miles south and reserved for offerings tied to water, fertility, and the sea. Its scarlet mantle gave it a symbolic charge no local material could match, and its use here places the pair squarely within the imperial ritual apparatus rather than domestic devotion.

Provenance: Private American collection. Ex. Lodi Collection, Pasadena, CA.

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Item #

73226

Condition
Scattered blue-green surface patina in the recesses, once cleaned to reveal details. Excellent surface patina. Intact.

Buyer's Premium
30%