GARDE

GARDE

*Zoomorphic vase featuring a beautifully stylized duck, beak resting on its plumage and wings folded, each decorated with motifs evoking primitive glyphs. The x-shaped glyph is often represented by the Olmec, symbolizing the meeting of opposing forces, terrestrial and celestial. Brown and beige terra cotta, a few small chips on the wings, slightly broken and glued, marks of time. Olmec, Las Bocas, Mexico, Pre-Classical Middle Period, 1200 to 900 B.C. 17 x 20.3 x 13.9 cm Provenance: former Yvon Collet collection, 1966 Bibliography: Ceramica Olmeca, Franz Feuchtwanger, editions, Editorial Patria, Mexico, 1989, p. 146, fig. 78, for a very similar vase.