LOT 2748

Olmec Jade Circular Pendant with Transformation Deity

SOUTHERN MEXICO TO GUATEMALA, CIRCA 900-400 B.C. OR LATER

2 1/4 in. (309 grams total, pendant: 58.6 mm).

Large and circular in profile with carved head and body of a deity with the body of a jaguar and the head of a human, facing with emphasised hair and ears; old inked legend 'GHI.002'; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

Ex William and Carol Thbadeau, acquired 1960s-1980s.
Ex private collection, Georgia, USA.
Ex Americas Artifacts, Roswell, GA, USA.
with Artemis Gallery, 28 November 2016.
Private collection, London, UK.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.13463-262416.

Cf. similar hybrid figure in the collection of Dumarton Oaks, especially no.PC.B.603, Kneeling Transformation Figure with similar face; Furst, P.T., Visions of a Huichol Shaman, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2003, for discussion of the type; see also Von Winning, H., Pre Columbian Art of Mexico and Central America, Abrams New York, 1968, p. 54, for an assemble of pre classic finely carved beads.

The 'transformation figure' is the art-historical name given to the 'were-jaguar' combination of human and feline attributes, probably a shaman in the process of adopting his spirit animal persona.