Pre-Columbian Pottery Cocle Erotic Male Figure Panama Start Price USD 175.00 Current Price USD 355.00 Time Left - Bid Count 7 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Wednesday, August 13, 2008 End Time Saturday, August 23, 2008 Location Oakhurst, CA Gateway to Yosemite See more about 'Pre-Columbian Pottery Cocle Erotic Male Figure Panama' Description Williams Gallery West - Artifacts - Mexico and Central America - points, tools, pottery, beads  Pre-Columbian  Pottery Figure / Sculpture Erotic Figure / Bottle origin; Central America, most likely Panama  Coclé / Conte Culture From a California private collection   Figural pottery sculpture depicting a male figure in a contorted, almost acrobatic pose.  Figure is prone on its back with legs over the shoulders and arms holding firm at the waste.  Head is raised and facing the figure's penis, which is in an aroused state. Creamy clay body with a burnished finish, painted in great detail with spiraling black shapes, reminiscent of Maori tattoos or stripes on a tiger or other big cat. The facial features are fearsome with sharp teeth and large eyes.  The figure is possibly a shaman in jaguar form.  Figure balances on a low circular base. Round opening on top of head.  Lovely patina.      Condition: Very Good. Typical wear from age and burial. Painting is wonderful.  A few chips on pedestal base.    dimensions: approx 6 1/2" tall x 5" wide x 5 1/2" deep  Cocle is a province of central Panama on that nation's southern coast. Discoveries of Native objects from Cocle were made sporadically from about 1850, but it was not until 1915 that archeologists recognized a unified local culture of a high order. Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology carried out extensive work in Cocle in the 1930s, published in two large volumes in 1937 and 1942 by Samuel Kirkland Lothrop. The Native culture that created the unearthed objects was the one that was flourishing at the time of the Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century. These artifacts, which were found in burial sites, include objects of gold and other metals, jewelry, bone and ivory (whale-tooth) carvings, textiles and pottery. Cocle pottery exists in a wide variety of forms. Included on Cocle vessels are beautifully composed polychrome stylizations of gods and men, birds, crabs, fish, frog, serpents, jaguars, monkeys, coatis, demons, monsters, and a host of striking motifs of geometric and abstract patterns.  The strange culture of Cocle in Panama has held an unusual position for archeologists and art historians. Small in area, fairly recent in date, weak in many of the higher attributes of Mesoamerican civilization, Cocle is well known for a ceramic style of remarkably high quality. The artist-ceramists of Cocle worked within a relatively narrow scope, mostly painting bowls for ceremonial use, but this painting emerges as one of the most imaginative art forms in the Americas. We accept major credit cards Happy Bidding! Place a Bid!