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Details
LOT 2419
Pre-Columbian Stone Taino Transforming Zemi Figure
CIRCA 1500 A.D. OR LATER
13 1/2 in. (6 kg total, 34.3 cm high including stand).
Large carved hardstone model of a crouching figure with elbows resting on the knees and hands supporting the chin; the head modelled as a skull with exposed teeth, drilled eye-sockets and triangular nasal cavity; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]
Provenance
From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
Literature
For a smaller figure in similar pose see The Met Museum online, accession number 2010.177.
Footnotes
The population of the Taino people of the Dominican Republic and surrounding Caribbean islands may have been as high as 2 million by the 15th century. The Zemi, a spiritual figure forms a major part of their existing legacy and examples exist in many sizes including depictions in wood and stone.
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