A charming and characterful group of three Pre-Columbian West Mexican standing pottery figures of the celebrated "sheep-face" type — collector shorthand for the narrow-headed, slit-eyed Nayarit / Jalisco style with prominent applied ear discs, nose ornaments, and tall headdresses. The "sheep-face" term, long used among 20th-century Pre-Columbian dealers and collectors, captures the placid, elongated frontal expression characteristic of the Ixtlán del Río and related shaft-tomb traditions, dating to the Late Preclassic / Early Classic period, c. 100 BCE – 250 CE.
Each figure is hand-modeled in burnished red-orange earthenware with bold bichrome white slip decoration outlining facial features, body paint patterns, jewelry, and chevron-form garments. All three display the canonical "sheep-face" features: a narrow vertical head with a long straight nose forming a continuous T with the brow; slit / coffee-bean eyes; a small horizontal-slit mouth with a placid bleat-like expression; large multi-tiered applied disc ear ornaments; applied nose ornaments; and tall flared headdresses or turban-form caps that exaggerate the elongation of the face.
Left — Standing Male: Tall headdress with applied disc ornaments and lateral fans, white-painted necklace and chevron body decoration
Center — Standing Male with "Two-Horn" Headdress: Distinctive black-tipped tall conical/coiled Ixtlán del Río-type headdress, winged side-fans, applied nose ornament, and stippled white body painting suggesting tattooing or scarification
Right — Standing Female: Tall flared cap-form headdress, large multi-disc ear ornaments, white-painted V-form necklace/garment
Related stylistic family: "Pretty Ladies" of Tlatilco (Preclassic Valley of Mexico); Chupícuaro standing figures (Late Preclassic, Guanajuato/Michoacán); Ixtlán del Río Nayarit "Chinesco"; and the Jalisco Sheep-Face / Long-Face type in the older collector literature.
Provenance: From the estate of Dr. William K. Emerson (1925–2016), New York City. Dr. Emerson was Curator Emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History for four decades, where he served as Chair of the Department of Invertebrates until his retirement in 1995. A UC Berkeley PhD (1955), he was a distinguished malacologist who discovered and classified more than 100 species of mollusks on numerous Pacific voyages, publishing six books and 100+ scholarly articles. He was an avid and discerning collector of Pre-Columbian art throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The pre-1970/1980 NYC museum-curator provenance supports compliance with UNESCO 1970 / institutional acquisition standards.
Condition: Very good ancient condition for the type. Stable losses to projecting elements (headdress fans, ear discs), expected slip and pigment wear, scattered surface deposits and root-marks consistent with approximately 1,800–2,100 years of burial. Each figure stands independently on its own integrally modeled feet.
Dimensions Female figure: 5 in H × 3 in W × 1.5 in D &Male figures: 5 in H × 2.5 in W × 2 in D
West Mexican shaft-tomb figures of the "sheep-face" / Pretty Lady tradition are among the most expressive and accessible Pre-Columbian sculptures — their slit-eyed, serene frontal gaze has been a beloved collector type since the mid-20th century. Comparable examples are held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LACMA, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. The Emerson AMNH connection adds significant institutional and scholarly weight; figures with named, pre-1970s curator provenance are increasingly difficult to source.
