17803
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Late Classic Period, circa 600 to 900 AD
Carved as a diminutive human or divine visage in a mottled apple-green to olive-brown jadeite, this Maya face pendant presents a strikingly individualized countenance beneath a raised, banded headdress or coiffure rendered in low relief with volute-like curls at the crown, the heavy-lidded almond eyes, broad nose, and firmly set mouth carved with real physiognomic presence, and the ears fitted with disc-form spools indicating a costume of considerable status. The stone has been worked in the round on all faces, with the reverse left summarily finished and the sides carved to continue the profile of cheek and jaw, while a neatly drilled biconical hole pierces the crown for suspension as a pendant or sewn ornament on an elite costume. It retains a lovely oiled polish across the high points of the face that catches the light against the more matte, iron-flecked recesses of the carving, with light incrustation and mineral staining consistent with long burial and no restoration visible.
Size: 1-7/8 in. in height (4.8 cm), or 4-3/8 in. (11.1 cm) as mounted on its custom stand.
Compare with a published parallel of a Maya jade Head Pendant in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. 02.18.309), dated 6th–9th century, a triangular apple-green jadeite face of comparable scale carved with a zoomorphic headdress and circular earflares, formed from the same Motagua River Valley material prized throughout the Maya world.
Ex Cliff Niederer Collection, La Jolla, California.
Every object is guaranteed authentic and as described, and has been legally acquired and imported in accordance with U.S. and applicable foreign regulations on the movement and sale of antiquities. A signed certificate of authenticity with a description and photograph accompanies this object. Any restoration is described on the invoice.
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