Mezcala Stone Effigy Figure

Replica Handbags s of Ancient Lands, New York, acquired in the mid 1970s

David Bramhall, New York, acquired from the above

Merrin Gallery, New York

Gerard Geiger Collection, Geneva, acquired from the above

Etude Binoche, Paris, Collection Gérard Geiger, March 14, 2005, lot 40

Binoche et Giquello, Paris, Collection Regine et Guy Dulon: Art Precolombien et Tableaux Modernes, Oeuvres de Prinner, June 19, 2015, lot 62

Daniel Hourdé Collection, Paris

Peter Joralemon, Justin Kerr, Frances Pratt, et. al, At the Heart of Precolumbian America: The Gérard Geiger Collection, Milan, 2003, p. 115, fig. 56

Small stone animal effigies were an important component of the Mezcala tradition, with the variety of creatures portrayed including birds, dogs, serpents, bats, frogs, fish and iguanas. Each likely served as a "totemic emblem, good-omen amulets, and as symbolic participants in rituals".¹

As on this figure of a canine, the amulets have perforations on the limbs so they could be worn and transported.

Cf. For similar examples, see Gay and Pratt, op. cit., p. 161, Plates 179-181. 

¹ Carlo Gay and Francis Pratt, Mezcala, Ancient Stone Sculpture from Guerrero Mexico, Geneva, 1992, p. 149