LOT 2276

Moche-Sican Style Gilded Ear Spools with Warriors

20TH CENTURY A.D. OR EARLIER

4 1/4 in. (173 grams total, 10.7 cm each).

Each with a gold surface and red-brown cinnabar colouration; the spools are discoid with raised bands and a capped and pierced central cylindrical neck to the reverse; the discs present almost identical scenes of a standing warrior wearing a headdress and holding a club and shield; in the style of the Lambayeque Valley, circa 200-500 A.D. [2, No Reserve]

Formerly acquired before 1950.
From the collection of Mr Razeto, acquired in the 1950s-1960s.
Ex private American collection, circa 1960s.
Acquired from Gloria Lisset Reyes Garcia, Florida, USA.
From the private collection of Mr Michael J. Vaupel, Miami, USA.

See Pillsbury, J. et al., Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017, no.21; cf. Jones, J., and Heidi, K., Gold of the Americas, The Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art vol, 59, no.4, Spring 2002, p.16.

The age of the Moche people has been lauded as the 'Master Craftsman Period' by archaeologists. Alongside other developments and innovations, the Moche excelled at metalwork, such as this pair of earrings, which may have been worn by high-status men or women. The pair would likely have been deposited as grave goods. The Moche culture existed between 200 and 850 AD, before the advent of the Inca. Although they never formed a single centralised political entity, they built thriving cultural regional centres stretching from the Nepeña River Valley in the south to the Piura River, close to the modern border with Ecuador, developing coastal regions into fertile farmlands and exploiting the maritime resources of the Pacific Ocean's Humboldt Current.