Description:

Pre-Columbian, Peru (North Coast), Moche Culture, probably later in the period, ca. 100 to 700 CE. A pair of incredible labrets, composed of wooden discs with hollow gold cylinders behind them for threading through a stretched lip. The gold has ornate sunbursts in low relief on their exposed ends. Each wooden disc has an inlaid motif. The first is in turquoise, and features a four-legged animal - probably a camelid - inside a border of rectangular blue-green stone. The second is a seated seabird made of very pale orange shell, surrounded by a border of exposed wood studded with eight tiny discs of the same colored shell. Size of one (they are very close in size): 1.5" W (3.8 cm); 4" H (10.2 cm) on included custom stand.

Towards the end of the Moche period, there is a distinctive change in women's clothing style. Ceramics begin to depict women wearing facial labrets, alongside having heart-shaped skulls and distinctive long coiffures. This suggests a dramatic shift in women's fashion, which had been remarkably uniform for several centuries, perhaps due to contact with people from the north. The styles on ceramics, alongside the use of gold, gives us an idea of who would have worn these items: elite women, with enough wealth to own personal adornment made of such fine material, who were influenced by international fashion.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex Ferdinant Anton collection, Germany

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#131909

  • Condition: Wear and patina commensurate with age. Gold is lightly bent in some places. Excellent preservation of motifs.

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March 15, 2018 7:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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