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Fake Pre-Columbian Sitting Female Figure with bowl

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Figurines110 of 3870Rex Valencia FigurineCeramic Crows. Made in Italy.
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    Posted 3 years ago

    rancherswife
    (4 items)

    “Like” pre-Columbian female figure since I can’t tell actual age or if this a good knock-off. See my comments regarding lack of quality later. Size is approximately 10” tall, 6 1/4” wide, and 5 1-2” deep. Weighs approximately 5 pounds. Handmade light brown/tan clay/terracotta female figure kneeling, left hand holding large substantial bowl, right hand holding right temple/side of head, large bulging eyes, slightly downturned mouth, a sash or belt at waist and small cap on head. No appearance of hair but the breasts appear female and nipple areas have distinctive darker brown perfect circles. This may’ve been done by firing which is how I believe the overall darkened areas on this piece happened possibly. So I believe this is a female even though hair isn’t apparent to me. She has a slightly poochy belly. She has cupped ears. No jewelry. The figure appears to be in one of the three Jalisco styles of clay coloring I saw in my hours of research. There may be more known Jalisco styles that I haven’t come across yet. If it is an actual Jalisco pre-Columbian figure I don’t know which era. Very rough condition with blobs of sandy-feeling mud clay. Unglazed. Picture #4 is a close-up of one of the hardened mud blobs with a couple pieces of grass? sticking out. I didn’t include an overall picture of this particular blob area (this one is located between back of bowl to abdomen) since I had to pick 4 pics, but if anyone wants to see other angles, etc, I can delete and replace some pictures. Other blobs of sandy mud appear under right arm, right ear/right side of head, and other bits and pieces of sandy mud here and there. Also, in picture #3, on the inside of her thighs and bottom of bowl it appears to me someone actually scraped away the clay, revealing blue paint. That damage could’ve been caused some other way besides a person scraping it, but I can’t imagine how. In all the hours I spent trying to find similar examples of pre-Columbian figures I didn’t see such a sloppy job on their finished products. Damage includes chips here and there like front of bowl, under right breast, and other places that appear to be old chips bc of the aging color where the chips are. In most chipped places, with the help of my loupe, you can see very vivid colors of mustard, red, blue and possibly a little white, as if originally had a painted decoration on her. No mark that I can read. Any input or thoughts are welcomed.

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    Comments

    1. rancherswife rancherswife, 3 years ago
      Thanks for the love, dav2no1. It’s an interesting piece.
    2. rancherswife rancherswife, 3 years ago
      I edited my post to correct the weight; it’s approximately 5 pounds. Going to have to invest in a nice platform-type digital scale. :-0
    3. rancherswife rancherswife, 3 years ago
      Thank you all for the loves, blunderbuss2, Searching1, Newfld, vcal, and fortapache! :-)
    4. ho2cultcha ho2cultcha, 3 years ago
      you see how the color is very uniform throughout the piece as is the rubbing on the outer points evenly over the whole piece? that's a clear sign of a fake. because real ones spent eons in these shafts in the ground and their patina, color, worn points are never uniform throughout the piece. i think i know who made this one. s/he always makes these fakes of people kneeling and holding a bowl or something very similar.
    5. rancherswife rancherswife, 3 years ago
      Ok, ho2cultcha, thank you very much for your information and letting me in on it! I really appreciate it! I figured as much. I love learning from all the CW members! This is a fascinating website bc it covers just about any item you could think of. Thanks again, ho2cultcha!
    6. rancherswife rancherswife, 3 years ago
      Thanks for the love jscott0363!

      Thanks again ho2cultcha for the helpful comments and for the love!

      I appreciate everyone stopping in to check things out!
    7. rancherswife rancherswife, 3 years ago
      Thx for the loves dave2no1, blunderbuss2, Searching1, Newfld, vcal and fortapache! I appreciate everyone dropping by! Have a great week!
    8. Vynil33rpm Vynil33rpm, 3 years ago
      Yes one would certainly think,
      that dealers in illegal antiquities
      Would at least wash the mud
      I’ve seen things similar items
      high in the mountains
      on the dirt road to Tikal in Guatemala
    9. rancherswife rancherswife, 3 years ago
      Thanks for the love, aura and kwqd!

      Vynil33rpm, thanks for your comment and observation! And for the love!
    10. rancherswife rancherswife, 2 years ago
      Ms.CrystalShip, lol, that is true! Someday she will be old. ????. I agree, someone did put some time and effort into her, but when money is the motive people will go to all lengths and become quite good (and probably efficiently fast) at recreating over and over the same model. Disappointing but that’s life. I appreciate you and all the members who offered love and insights. Thanks all! ????

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