Provenance Information

Justin and Barbara Kerr, New York, acquired before 1971, until 2017

Exhibition Information

1971. The Maya Scribe and His World. (New York: Grolier Club).

Publication Information

Coe, Michael D. 1973. The Maya Scribe and His World. (New York: Grolier Club). Fig. 63; Kerr, Justin. 1990. The Maya Vase Book. Vol. 2. p. 312; K4467 in the online corpus of Maya ceramics:
http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_list.php?_allSearch=Chochola&hold_search=&x=32&y=15&vase_number=&date_added=&ms_number=&site

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This work has provenance to 1971 when it was first exhibited at the Grolier Club in New York, and illustrated in the subsequent catalogue in 1973. This work is the first vessel in this important style to enter the Metropolitan Museum’s collection. Known as Chocholá, the style is named after a small town in the northern Yucatan Peninsula from which many of these vessels reportedly came. The corpus of Chocholá vessels is limited to perhaps fewer than 50, and this depiction of a waterbird is a unique image among known vessels, and most certainly one of the finest vessels created in this iconic style.

Provenance Information

Private collection, Belgium, possibly by the late 1950s; purchased by Samuel Pascasio, New York, by the early 1970s; [Alphonse Jax, New York], by the early 1970s; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, May 27, 2000

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, as well as cumulative facts and circumstances, this Aztec seated figure was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by 1970. Per email correspondence with previous owner Alphonse Jax, the piece was purchased from Samuel Pascasio, who Jax remembers having documents confirming its placement in a private Belgian collection by the late 1950s. While there is no documentation to corroborate, photographs of the work received from Jax bear labels on their verso that indicate they were taken in Belgium. Further provenance research will be ongoing, but the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) can conclude, based on the aforementioned facts, that the work was likely in Belgium before 1970. This work cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. SAM has in its collection a smaller example of an Aztec standing figure, representing a priest-follower of the god Tlaloc (god of fertility). Exhibited together, these works provide an opportunity to present visual components of complex Aztec cosmology and a range of stylistic variables in this art form.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.

Provenance Information

Collection of Paul Arany, New York, probably by the late 1960s; [Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York]; purchased by Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Oct. 27, 1998

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

None known

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Based on the results of provenance research, this labret was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1960s. Per email correspondence with Throckmorton Fine Art employee Dimitri Treantafilos, Spencer Throckmorton confirmed that this labret (plus eleven others) came to the gallery from the collection of Paul Arany, who collected them while working in Mexico for the oil industry during the 1960s, thus placing them outside their country of modern discovery before 1970. The labret cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. The Seattle Art Museum’s collection includes a few pieces of adornment—ear spools, pendants, necklaces—but not labrets. With this acquisition the museum can look cross-culturally at the practice of wearing lip plugs and other bodily adornments.