David Stuart, Los Angeles
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from the above on April 25, 1967

Inventoried by Hasso von Winning,  March 28, 1970, no. 6

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Temporary Loan, January 28 - June 30, 1975, (ex. 75.23)
Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles, Companions of the Dead: Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, October 11 - November 27, 1983
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, September 5, 1998 - November 22, 1998, continuing to
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, December 20, 1998- March 29, 1999

Hasso von Winning, The Shaft Tomb Figures of West Mexico, Los Angeles, 1974, p. 108, fig. 51
Jacki Gallagher, Companions of the Dead: Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, Los Angeles, 1983, p. 53, fig. 46
Gérald Berjonneau, ‎Emile Deletaille, and ‎Jean-Louis Sonnery, Rediscovered Masterpieces of Mesoamerica, Boulogne, 1985, p. 184, fig. 266
Richard F. Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, Chicago, 1998, p. 130, fig. 33

Excellent condition overall. Fine coloring and overall burnishing of the face, the body ornaments, and applied decoration. One main break and repair horizontally across the middle of the torso, as seen in the catalogue illustration. Very minor chip on the proper right foot with a repair to the tip of the fourth toe. Small repair to chip to the rim of the shallow bowl in the figure's proper left hand. Areas of pale encrustation on proper right side of spout. On proper right shoulder, missing one applied bead of the raised tattoos. Four legged stool appears intact.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The Silvers' Coahuayana female is an exceptional example of the most distinctive of all the Colima styles which originated on the southwest coast of Colima near the Michoácan border. Most Coahuayana figures are of rounded, naturalistic form; this sculpture is a dynamic and fluid interplay of contrasting proportions, and expressions of tension and poise. As a large hollow sculpture covered in rich red slip, dense resist design, applied body ornamentation, and in a satin burnish, she defines the finest qualities of the "Intermediate" variant of the Coahuayana style. As Emmerich commented in the early 1960’s, Colima art is imbued with dignity, grace and presence. The artisans "produced masterpieces which are among the high points of Pre-Columbian art" (Emmerich, Art before Columbus, 1963, p. 37).

Coahuayana figures include a large percentage of women of high status as indicated by 🅘their sitting on the short stools reserved only for revered ancestors or high-ranking figures. Women are typically shown naked with elements of jewelry and tattooing; the Silver figure is adorned with finely applied jewelry of disk earrings, a single strand bead necklace, and raised shoulder tattoos that are edged by a segmented armband. There is a tension and balance in her contrasting physical attributes: her minimal breasts and prominent genitalia, the voluminous legs fluidly bent, ending in the large flat paddle-shaped feet, the short arms and elongated flattened torso. The toes and fingers are outstretched and clenched but her left hand gently holds a shallow bowl. Her face is an economy of form, the𒉰 reserved, trance-like expression is conveyed with applied straight bands completing the mouth, eyes and brows, and the nose is prominent and thin.

The head is forming the spout to her hollow body, while serving as the firing vent it is symbolically a reminder of the body as a sacred vessel. Ceramic figures as a type of spirit vessel were explored by Rebecca Stone, who suggests that ceramic figures could have been the designated receptacles for intangible essences, the teotl, the omnipresent life force (Stone, in Beekman and Pickering, eds., Reassessment, 2016, p. 188). Looking at the relationship of visionary experience and material containers, the figures could be part of a ritual performance, providing a form for the priest or shaman’s altered self to enter as desired (ibid., p. 190).

For a closely related Coahuayana figure formerly in the Saul and Marsha Stanoff Collection, see Sotheby’s, New York, May 17, 2007, lot 58; for a solid standing male figure in the Proctor Stafford Collection, see Kan, Meighan, and Nicholson, Proctor Stafford Collection, 1970, fig. 135.