Moche Grasshopper Effigy Vessel, Rare Insect Form, ex-Drimmer

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Moche, ca. 500–800 CE. A grasshopper modeled in the round, its body swelling into a hollow chamber with a broad oval opening set into the back. The buff, cream-slipped earthenware carries red-brown bands across the thorax and abdomen, with narrower stripes reserved along the tail and a dark accent marking the mandibles. Folded wings and hind legs are rendered in low relief that follows the natural taper of the form, the domed eyes applied as raised pellets. Insect subjects are uncommon in Moche ceramic sculpture, which favors humans, felines, and marine life, and this vessel likely served a funerary or offering role rather than daily use. Size: 5.25" W x 9.75" H x 6" D (13.3 cm W x 24.8 cm H x 15.2 cm D).

Moche potters of Peru's north coast worked in a tightly disciplined palette of red-brown slip on cream, applying it with brush-like precision to press-molded and hand-modeled forms. Their zoomorphic vessels functioned as a visual census of the coastal world: owls, foxes, sea lions, crustaceans, and deer all appear, frequently with human attributes grafted onto them. Insects enter that repertoire far more rarely. Where they do, they are generally read as agricultural omens, tied to the fertility of irrigated valley fields and to the seasonal swarms that could ruin them. Vessels of this type were regularly interred with the dead, and the openings in their backs suggest they held liquid or maize-based offerings.

Provenance: Ex. Collection of Leo and Beatrice Drimmer, acquired in the 1960’s. To family by descent.

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Item #

73173

Condition
Overall scattered high point paint wear, and general surface pitting on his left rear leg, some general scattered minor pitting, a very minor reattached rim chip, otherwise intact.

Buyer's Premium
30%