Published Tlatilco Standing Pottery “Pretty Lady” D1 Type Female

Central Highlands, Mexico, ca. 1200–900 BCE.
Hand‑modeled nude female figure with truncated arms, exposed breasts, and dramatically swollen wide hips.  The surface retaining traces of original red and ochre pigment. The head is adorned with a tightly textured coiffure and pendant ringlets framing an expressive face with strongly modeled brows and nose.  

This beautiful and important figure was published by Michael D. Coe in his seminal volume The Jaguar’s Children: Pre‑Classic Central Mexico (New York: Museum of Primitive Art, 1965), where it appears as catalogue number 93, “Standing figure (type D1). Tlatilco. White and red paint, 5 ½ in. high. Collection Mrs. McClure Capps, Los Angeles.” Publication in this early scholarly study firmly situates the work within the classic corpus of Tlatilco “pretty ladies” and provides a documented presence in a major museum‑based catalogue.

Size 5-3/4 inches (14.6cm) Height + custom mount.

Provenance: “Collection Mrs. McClure Capps, Los Angeles,” then to a Mercer Island descent from Ruth Goldwyn Capps & Henry McClure Capps; which gives us a documented pre‑1965 collection history and pre‑UNESCO 1970 export, which is a plus for both legal comfort and buyer confidence which can lead to an institutional legacy donation. 

Tlatilco female figurines like this ‘pretty lady’ probably served multiple functions—as emblems of fertility and regeneration, markers of personal identity and status, and small ritual companions in life and death.