Description:

Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, Chinesco, Type B, Protoclassic Period, ca. 100 BCE to 250 CE. A wonderful example of a hand-built pottery Chinesco Type B figural vessel resting atop legs folded beneath thick thighs. Highly burnished and decorated with cream pigment atop a brick-red ground, the figure presents with a painted, stippled waist band while holding sinuous arms atop the relatively flat abdomen. A pair of petite, perky breasts protrude from just beneath the shoulders which are themselves dramatically hunched, and the thick neck tapers slightly to form the enlarged, heart-shaped head. The countenance is comprised of raised, coffee-bean eyes, a petite nose adorned with a nose ring, a narrow mouth, and perky ears, all beneath a peaked, incised coiffure with an openwork spout opening. Size: 6.5" W x 9.3" H (16.5 cm x 23.6 cm)

Condition:
Professionally repaired and restored from multiple pieces, with restoration across head, body, and base, and resurfacing with overpainting along new material and break lines that is nearly invisible. Abrasions and fading to areas of original pigment, nicks to face and base, and light encrustations within interior cavity. Nice remains of original pigment throughout. Old inventory labels beneath base.
Provenance: private Healy collection, Studio City, California, USA, acquired May 2020; ex-Arte Primitivo, New York, New York, USA (May 29, 2020, lot 86); ex-collection of Richard Gregory (financial analyst for Hearst Magazines), 1980s, to current owner by inheritance. 

All antiquities were purchased at Artemis Gallery with COA.

See image of Certificate of Authenticity.

Size: 6 x 6 x 10 in.
#4 #6293