Moche Spondylus Shell Appliques, Feline Maskettes (13)

Pre-Columbian, Peru, Moche, ca. 300–500 CE. A constellation of thirteen miniature shell appliques, four of them stylized feline maskettes cut from spondylus with rounded muzzles, perked ears, and eyes and mouth reduced to drilled boreholes. The remaining nine are geometric mosaic elements: open lozenges and diamond frames in purple and orange spondylus, two annular discs, and a mother-of-pearl disc with attached bar. All were shaped by grinding and rotary drilling, then perforated for stitching onto textile, gilded copper, or wood. Such inlays formed the surface of Moche regalia, pectorals, headdresses, and ear ornaments, where the thorny oyster's red and violet zones were prized as imported wealth from Ecuadorian waters. The jaguar head, the apex predator of Moche iconography, marked the wearer's rank. Mounted on a custom black lucite display panel. Display base: 7" W x 9" H (17.8 cm W x 22.9 cm H).

Spondylus princeps, the thorny oyster, does not live in the cold Peruvian current; it had to be dived from warm Ecuadorian waters and carried south along a trade corridor that operated for millennia. That scarcity made the shell a currency of the sacred, offered in foundation deposits, ground into powder for ritual paths, and reserved for elite adornment. Its color range, from deep violet through coral orange to chalky white, gave Andean lapidaries a palette no local material could match.

Moche metalworkers and shell carvers built composite ornaments by fixing hundreds of such elements to backings of copper, gilded copper, or cloth, a technique documented in the royal tombs at Sipan and San Jose de Moro. Feline imagery ran through the whole system: the jaguar and pampas cat appear as attributes of warriors, sacrificers, and supernatural figures throughout Moche fineline painting and modeled ceramics.

Provenance: Ex. H. J. Westermann collection, Germany, active 1950’s - 1960’s.

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Item #

73192

Condition
A minor chip on two of the jaguar ear edges, otherwise all are intact.

Buyer's Premium
30%