Pre-Columbian Jalisco Redware Standing Figures, Pair (Auction 2026-06-05, Lot 46A)

$899.50

A pair of large hollow pottery standing figures in the shaft tomb tradition, each nude with a broad face and stout columnar legs. The male figure has applied headband detailing and earrings, while the female holds a bowl, her shoulders covered in small protrusions interpreted as ritual scarification or tattoos. Such figures were placed in the deep shaft tombs of the Jalisco region as funerary companions, likely representing ancestors, attendants, or guardians for the deceased.

Provenance: private Charlotte collection, North Carolina, USA; ex-Joel Malter collection before 2004

Condition: Damaged. Both have restoration. The male figure’s left arm is repaired from several pieces with visible breaklines, and reattached at the shoulder with adhesive infill added to this area to reinforce the repair. Overpainting to this infill. Large hole to the underside of this arm. The female is restored with nearly seamless infill along breaklines, and is nearly indiscernible. Both are grainy and textured from the surface layers weathering away.