Rare Mask of a Coquero of the Nariño/Carchi Culture

Culture: Ecuador/Nariño/Carchi Culture

Period: 1000-1500 A.D.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 31.2 cm high

Price: 12 000 Euro

Ref: 11059

Provenance: Austrian private collection Prof. Josef Mairitsch (1938-1994) with the inventory number M 204. Acquired between 1960 and the early 1980s. Thence in the family estate. With a copy of the catalogue page.

Condition: Intact

Description: Published, life-size mask of a high ranking coquero chewing coca leaves. The face in the so-called late “Tuza style” framed with an opulent headdress. On the forehead a red filet, in the centre sits a sculptural mouse with a stretched out tail to the right, facing downwards. The semi-circular ears protrude sidewards, also have a raised red stripe in the middle and are pierced. In the perforation long ear jewellery with disc-shaped ends, which lie on the chewing mouth with outstretched lips. The right cheek is bulging with coca leaves. Another red stripe vertically runs across the face from the forehead over the nose and lips to the chin. The eyes sculpturally bulge in coca ecstasy. Contrary to seated coqueros, masks, especially in this size and quality, are extremely rare. See for a similar example from the archaeological collection Ebnöther, today in the Museum zu Allerheiligen in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. More masks with the same, trapezoid face framing, see Sotheby’s auction on 16 May 2008, lot 2, as well as in the Penn Museum with the object number 2017-23-62. The present mask is published in: “Columbus am Wörthersee. Amerika vor Columbus.” Catalogue for the special exhibition of the cultural department of the state capital Klagenfurt from 1 June to 31 October 1992, p. 50, no. 16.10. Through the perforations on the filet threaded for suspension.