DIQUÍS GOLD FIGURAL PENDANT CIRCA AD 800-1200

Philip Dade Collection

Andre Emmerich, acquired from the above in 1964 (CA-534)

Jan Mitchell, New York, acquired from the above in October, 1964

Thence by family descent

Ceremonial pendants of shaman and warrior figures prominently display their accoutrements of prestige and power. This densely cast male stands on elongated filigree feet and holds large flaring paddle-shaped clubs in each hand. Wooden clubs of this form, called macanas, were mentioned in the 16th c. chronicles (Cooke and Bray, in Jones, ed., The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection, New York, 1985, p. 39). His trance-like face is marked by the tight-lipped mouth, coffee-bean style closed eyes, and the top of his head is surmounted by two frogs with rounded heads and frothy spirals at the back; it has double suspension loops behind the neck.