Lot 50
Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Colima, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. A burnished redware figure-vessel depicting a seated adult man with a compressed torso and pronounced hunchback, his hands resting on bent knees as his body forms the container's rounded volume. A flaring neck rises from the crown of his head, turning the portrait into a functional bottle while keeping the face as the visual focus. The features are strongly modeled - heavy brow, wide nose, and open mouth with bared teeth - while the limbs are simplified to emphasize the shortened trunk and spinal curvature. In Pre-Columbian contexts, such bodily differences may have carried spiritual or social significance, and Colima artists frequently portrayed hunchbacked and dwarf figures, suggesting these individuals could have held notable roles or status within their communities. Size: 7" W x 11.5" H (17.8 cm x 29.2 cm)
Colima, on Mexico's southwestern coast, formed part of the Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition alongside neighboring regions such as Jalisco and Nayarit. In this mortuary system, the dead were interred in deep vertical or near-vertical shafts - often about 3 to 20 meters - cut through the region's volcanic tuff, opening at the base into one or more low-ceilinged horizontal chambers. These tombs were frequently placed beneath domestic structures and appear to have functioned as family mausoleums, accumulating the remains of multiple related individuals over time. Sculptural vessels like this were made for placement within those chambers, likely serving funerary and ritual purposes and helping to articulate connections between the living community, ancestors, and the afterlife.
Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection; ex-private Los Angeles, California, USA collection; ex-major gallery, Beverly Hills, California, USA, primarily acquired between 1985 and 2005
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#199795
- Condition: Professionally repaired and restored from several pieces, with infill along breaklines, and nearly indiscernible on the base. Breaklines are only visible on the interior. Nice root marks and manganese deposits throughout. Abrasions to the surface as shown.
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