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Maya Four Jade Pendants:Frontal Faces with Headd

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:3,000.00 USD Estimated At:12,000.00 - 18,000.00 USD
Maya Four Jade Pendants:Frontal Faces with Headd
<B>Set of Four Pendants: Frontal Faces with Headdresses</B></I><BR>Maya<BR>A.D. 600 - 800<BR>Jadeite, red pigment<BR>(A) Height 2 7/16 in. Width 2 1/4 in.<BR>(B) Height 3 1/8 in. Width 2 3/4 in.<BR>(C) Height 3 1/8 in. Width 2 9/16 in.<BR>(D) Height 2 13/16 in. Width 2 1/16 in.<BR><BR>These four closely similar pendants are cut from the same cobble of jadeite and can, exercising some ingenuity, be fit together sequentially from A to D as listed above. It is most unusual to have an original group worked from a single piece of jadeite still together after over 1250 years. All show a frontal face with headdress, earspools, and necklace. The headdresses of pendants B, C, and D have the conventional representation of a jaguar, seen as engulfing the wearer's face in its maw. The headdress of pendant A shows a central, vertically-oriented long oval element, from which two scroll forms issue to either side. This personage also wears a necklace of round beads. The other three show variants of necklaces based on a central medallion flanked by scrolls. Each pendant is drilled for suspension near the top diagonally from the side to the back. All four pendants were rubbed all over with a red mineral pigment (almost certainly cinnabar), a considerable amount of which remains, especially in the deeper cuts. The condition of all four is excellent.<BR><BR>Provenance<BR>Enrique Vargas, San José, Costa Rica<BR>Richard Sirkin, M.D., Buffalo, New York<BR>David Walley, Pontotoc, Mississippi<BR><BR>