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Veracruz Double-chambered Ceramic Flute

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Veracruz Double-chambered Ceramic Flute
<B>Double-chambered Flute with Head of an Old Person with Balloon-like Breasts</B></I><BR>Veracruz<BR>A.D. 300 - 600<BR>Buff ceramic<BR>Height 7 5/8 in. Width 3 7/8 in.<BR><BR>Although mold-made, this head of a very old person is fully detailed and expressive, the overall network of wrinkles carefully shown. A non-symmetrical headdress has an arrangement of four feathers toward its left. This is balanced at its right by a vividly rendered hummingbird-like avian thrusting its beak into the headdress proper. A band of appliquéd disks joins the two side elements across the top of the headdress. Large ear spools complete the figure's décor. Coils of clay were attached at the outside of either flute barrel to suggest shoulders and arms. The image is completed by pendulous, balloon-like breasts. The two flute barrels, joined near the end, further the suggestion of a full figure. Each barrel has three finger holes.<BR>The large number of surviving examples, plus the considerable typological complexity of some, suggest that music was a central and highly developed component of ancient Veracruz ritual performance. The use of flutes with hand drums, some played at the same time by one performer, survives today among a number of Middle American groups.<BR>The flute was found broken into several pieces. These have been reglued with replacement material, except for the breasts, which are largely rebuilt.<BR><BR>Provenance<BR>Collection of Stanley Marcus, Dallas<BR>Collection of Paul L. and Alice C. Baker, Tuscon, Arizona<BR>Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco: sale 7594E, 6 December 2004, Lot 1520, p.150<BR><BR>Publications<BR>Jane Stevenson Day, PH.D, <I>Precolumbian Art From the Collection of Paul L. and Alice C. Baker,</B></I> Tucson, Tucson Museum of Art, 1996, ill. p.79, fig.87<BR><BR>