Lambayeque Sican Silver Pectoral Set | Stingray, Seabird Roundels

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Lambayeque (Sican), ca. 800–1000 CE. A group of pectoral components hammered from sheet silver: nine convex roundels, each worked in repousse with a seabird seizing a stingray against a densely stippled field, and pierced at the upper rim with paired suspension holes. With them are two sheet face plaques, likely female, their long multi-pendant necklaces and stylized floral cheek marks raised in the same technique, the lower edges cut into fringed tabs. Assembled and strung, such elements formed the shimmering breast ornament of an elite wearer. Silver carried lunar and feminine associations in Lambayeque cosmology, a deliberate counterweight to the solar gold reserved for other regalia. Custom mounted in a black velvet lined lidded display case. Display box: 17.75" W x 12.5" H (45.1 cm W x 31.8 cm H); Components: 1.5" Diam (3.8 cm Diam).

The Sican (Lambayeque) polity rose on Peru's north coast after the collapse of the Moche, and its smiths were among the most accomplished metalworkers of the ancient Americas. Working alloys of silver, gold, copper and arsenical bronze, they mastered depletion gilding, silvering, and the mass production of hammered sheet, turning out ornaments by the hundreds for elite burials at Batan Grande and Huaca Loro.

The seabird-and-ray motif belongs to the coastal maritime repertoire that runs through north Peruvian art: cormorants, pelicans and boobies taking fish or rays, an image of the sea's abundance and of predatory power. Rendered in repousse on convex ground and stippled overall, the scene would have caught and scattered light with every movement of the wearer, the visual logic behind so much Sican sheetwork.

Provenance: Private American collection. Ex. Eugene Lions, Geneva, Switzerland, active 1950’s - 1970’s.

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Item #

73234

Condition
Intact, Excellent condition

Buyer's Premium
30%