Nazca Polychrome Headhunter Effigy Vessel with Trophy HeadsPre-Columbian, Peru, Nazca,...
Nazca Polychrome Headhunter Effigy Vessel with Trophy HeadsPre-Columbian, Peru, Nazca, ca. 100–600 CE. A warrior looms out of the clay: modeled in the round with a broad, slit-eyed face, the head rising from a bulbous body that doubles as the chamber of the vessel. Slip-painted in cream, orange, red-brown and black, the figure wears a whiskered nasal mask, a wide segmented collar, and a bird-form headdress banded with fine lines. Across the body he grips a knife and a severed trophy head, while a register of ten frontal faces, hair black and eyes half-lidded, runs around the lower rear. A cylindrical spout and strap handle rise at the back. Trophy-head imagery is central to Nazca ritual, and such vessels likely served ceremonial or funerary drinking rather than daily use. Size: 9.5" Diam x 6.25" H (24.1 cm Diam x 15.9 cm H).
Nazca potters of Peru's south coast worked without glaze, achieving their palette from mineral slips applied before firing and burnished to a low sheen, a technique that supported as many as a dozen distinct colors on a single vessel. The severed head, taken in raid or ritual combat, was perforated at the forehead, threaded with cord, and carried or cached; caches of such heads have been excavated at Cahuachi and elsewhere in the Nazca drainage. Whether these were enemy trophies, venerated ancestors, or offerings tied to agricultural fertility remains debated, but their persistent pairing with masked warriors, knives, and germinating plants on painted ceramics ties them to cycles of water, harvest, and renewal in one of the driest inhabited landscapes on earth.
Provenance: Ex. Collection of Leo and Beatrice Drimmer, acquired in the 1960’s. To family by descent.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73195Repaired from approximately three large original pieces with old restoration over the break lines.
Nazca Polychrome Headhunter Effigy Vessel with Trophy HeadsPre-Columbian, Peru, Nazca, ca. 100–600 CE. A warrior looms out of the clay: modeled in the round with a broad, slit-eyed face, the head rising from a bulbous body that doubles as the chamber of the vessel. Slip-painted in cream, orange, red-brown and black, the figure wears a whiskered nasal mask, a wide segmented collar, and a bird-form headdress banded with fine lines. Across the body he grips a knife and a severed trophy head, while a register of ten frontal faces, hair black and eyes half-lidded, runs around the lower rear. A cylindrical spout and strap handle rise at the back. Trophy-head imagery is central to Nazca ritual, and such vessels likely served ceremonial or funerary drinking rather than daily use. Size: 9.5" Diam x 6.25" H (24.1 cm Diam x 15.9 cm H).
Nazca potters of Peru's south coast worked without glaze, achieving their palette from mineral slips applied before firing and burnished to a low sheen, a technique that supported as many as a dozen distinct colors on a single vessel. The severed head, taken in raid or ritual combat, was perforated at the forehead, threaded with cord, and carried or cached; caches of such heads have been excavated at Cahuachi and elsewhere in the Nazca drainage. Whether these were enemy trophies, venerated ancestors, or offerings tied to agricultural fertility remains debated, but their persistent pairing with masked warriors, knives, and germinating plants on painted ceramics ties them to cycles of water, harvest, and renewal in one of the driest inhabited landscapes on earth.
Provenance: Ex. Collection of Leo and Beatrice Drimmer, acquired in the 1960’s. To family by descent.
SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).
PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.
Item #73195Repaired from approximately three large original pieces with old restoration over the break lines.
