Null Small Axe Figure, Mezcala Culture, Guerrero, Mexico, Late Formative Period,…

Description

Small Axe Figure, Mezcala Culture, Guerrero, Mexico, Late Formative Period, ca 400 BC-100 AD, Type M-6, Green speckled serpentine. An early variant of Mezcala figures, the face is somewhat flat with oblique planes meeting at the central ridge to suggest a nose. With shortened legs and only slightly indicated arms. Thin mouth. The edges are soft, as if the object had been used a great deal. A single drilled hole under the right shoulder. H 8.4 cm These types of figures were used as ceremonial stone axe heads as offerings to the gods. Provenance: Collection August Maurer, before 1986 , Auction Vogler 2015, Private collection, Germany

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Small Axe Figure, Mezcala Culture, Guerrero, Mexico, Late Formative Period, ca 400 BC-100 AD, Type M-6, Green speckled serpentine. An early variant of Mezcala figures, the face is somewhat flat with oblique planes meeting at the central ridge to suggest a nose. With shortened legs and only slightly indicated arms. Thin mouth. The edges are soft, as if the object had been used a great deal. A single drilled hole under the right shoulder. H 8.4 cm These types of figures were used as ceremonial stone axe heads as offerings to the gods. Provenance: Collection August Maurer, before 1986 , Auction Vogler 2015, Private collection, Germany

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Estim. 1 500 - 1 800 EUR

An enigmatic sculpture in the form of a monumental pearl. This monumental pearl in the Jean Roudillon collection, which appears to be one of the largest in his corpus, along with another from the William Spratling collection in Taxco El Viejo, are far too heavy to be worn. According to Carlo Gay, who published them both in his book Mezcala, they are not objects of use or manufacture, but symbolic sculptures for magico-religious use, i.e. votive sculptures. Still according to Carlo Gay, other symbolic sculptures with similarities and reciprocities to this corpus also existed in Olmec culture, and would thus be intimately linked throughout history. Other comparable beads, known as metamorphic stone beads, were also discovered in offering 16 of the Templo Mayor archaeological zone, within a "cosmogram", a quadrangular box where they would symbolize the four horizontal regions of the universe. It was therefore much later, in the time of the Mexica (formerly Aztecs), that these beads were rediscovered, and they seem to have crossed all the eras of pre-Hispanic Mexico, as Carlo Gay suggested. Mezcala, Guerrero region, 300 BC to 300 AD, Mexico Stone, green porphyry, small age-related dents and erosions, fine polished surface and age-related traces of oxidation. Max. diameter 14.8 cm See : Mezcala Ancient stone sculpture from Guerrero, Mexico Ed. Balsas Publications 1992, pp. 204-206. Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection before 1970 Publication and exhibition : Reproduced p. 238 n° 238 in: Mezcala Ancient stone sculpture from Guerrero Mexico, Carlos Gay and Frances Pratt, Ed. Balsas 1992 Exhibited and published on the back cover, Rennes Enchères sale catalog October 28, 2018 lot 204.

Estim. 1 800 - 2 500 EUR

A miniature figurine with a powerful corpulence. The important tradition of stone sculpture from the so-called Formative or Pre-Classical periods in Guerrero, as in the case of the so-called Chontal sculptures, often bears witness to objects that can sometimes seem a little rustic or even clumsy. Carlo Gay, the Guerrero specialist, distinguishes three phases in which anthropomorphic sculpture evolves over time towards greater detail and, in particular, the idea of power and musculature. It's worth remembering that the name Chontal defines the tradition of ancient stone sculptures discovered in the northeastern state of Guerrero, rather than a culture per se linking it to a given population. Chontal, Guerrero region, 100 to 700 A.D., Mexico Greenstone, erosions and small chips visible on head, one arm and legs H. 6.5 cm See : Chontal, Ancient Stone Sculpture from Guerrero Mexico, Carlo & Robin Gay, Ed. Balsas Geneve 2001 Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection before 1970

Estim. 3 000 - 5 000 EUR

A three-dimensional miniature temple model pendant with engraved niche and steps. Miniature temple models in the Mezcala culture are not only objects of ritual and funerary worship, but above all "exalting symbols of man's aspiration to eternal life", writes Carlo Gay. They are carved, two- or three-dimensionally, in a wide variety of stones, including calcite, andesite, serpentine, porphyry and a green and white marbled stone with a porphyry texture, as in this case, but never in diorite. As is often the case with Mezcala anthropomorphic idol sculptures, but also here with this temple by Carlo Gay, the sculpture can be adapted to the natural shape of a pebble. This rare temple model, published by Carlo Gay in his reference work, has suspension holes that show that this miniature temple model was also a pendant. Mezcala, Guerrero region, 300 BC to 300 AD, Mexico Green and white stone, superb old polished patina and significant traces of old oxidation H. 8.2 cm See : Mezcala Ancient stone sculpture from Guerrero Mexico, Ed. Balsas Publications 1992, pp. 167-182. Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection before 1970 Publication: Reproduced p. 181 no. 208 in: Mezcala Ancient Stone Sculpture from Guerrero Mexico, Carlos Gay and Frances Pratt, Ed. Balsas 1992

Estim. 2 000 - 2 500 EUR

Funerary mask-pendant. Speckled green diorite. Mexico, Guerrero state, Chontal culture, Late Preclassic, 300-100 B.C. Dimensions: 15 x 10 x 6 cm Present in an estate inventory from 1977

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