Provenance Information

Purchased by Major Elmer McBryde c. 1947 from another army officer, by decent to daughter, Diana McBride-Farley; Throckmorton Fine Art Inc., New York, NY; Robert L. Drapkin and Chitranee Drapkin Collection, St. Petersburg, FL (2003).

Exhibition Information

On view at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg since October 2020.

Publication Information

None.

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

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Promised gift prior to 2008.

Provenance Information

with Henry Willard Lende, Jr (1937-2016), San Antonio, TX, by 2016; by gift of the estate of Henry Willard Lende, Jr. to the San Antonio Museum of Art, 2018

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

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 object was a gift of the estate of Henry Willard Lende, Jr. (1937-2016) of San Antonio TX, who left behind no records concerning the provenance of this object. SAMA accepted the object with incomplete provenance to make it publicly accessible. This complete and intact incense burner expands the collection of Maya objects at SAMA.

Provenance Information

with Henry Willard Lende, Jr (1937-2016), San Antonio, TX, by 2016; by gift of the estate of Henry Willard Lende, Jr. to the San Antonio Museum of Art, 2018

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

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 object was a gift of the estate of Henry Willard Lende, Jr. (1937-2016) of San Antonio TX, who left behind no records concerning the provenance of this object. SAMA accepted the object with incomplete provenance to make it publicly accessible. Most Maya painted vases are unique in their artwork, thus this piece expands the SAMA collection of Art of the Americas before 1521.

Provenance Information

From personal communication: Mr. Larry Kent bought the piece in the 80s from Lore R. Grove. Ms. Grove acquired the piece in Antigua, Guatemala circa 1970s. No additional provenance information is reportedly available from Mr. Kent.

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

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

N/D

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

According to LACMA and AAMD guidelines, if the provenance of a proposed acquisition does not clearly indicate that the antiquity in question was outside its country of origin prior to 1970, the museum may determine to proceed with the acquisition based on an analysis of the benefits and risks, and in accordance with AAMD’s guidelines for the publication of the object and the provenance information known about it, with an explanation of the basis for the museum’s decision. Generally, LACMA believes that, absent evidence of looting or illegal export of any antiquities, but given incomplete provenance establishing that the objects were outside their source countries prior to 1970 and prior to any applicable foreign patrimony laws, it is in LACMA’s and the public interest to accept such objects for the purpose of bringing them into the public domain, caring for them and publishing them, both for scholarly purposes and for the purpose of providing notice to any party, including source countries, that may have a claim or information relating to the provenance of the objects.

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, California, c. 1965; Robert and Marianne Huber, Chicago (purchased from above owner according to written statement), c. 1965-1969; D. Daniel Michel, Chicago (69:156), 1969-1991; Art of the Ancient New World, New York, 1991; private U.S. collection, 1991-2016; acquired by the Princeton University Art Museum, 2016

Exhibition Information

None

Publication Information

Henderson, Lucia
2008 “Blood, Water, Vomit, and Wine: Pulque in Maya and Aztec Belief,” Mesoamerican Voices 3:53-76. Illus., Fig. 21b (p. 68; line drawing of a detail).

Photographed by Justin Kerr (K9294) and published online at mayavase.com sometime on or after 2006.

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, the Princeton University Art Museum can make an informed judgment that the object was outside its probable country of modern discovery before 1970. D. Daniel Michel gave each item in his collection a catalogue number, the first two digits of which indicate the year he acquired the work, in this case (19)69. The validity of this cataloguing system is supported by exhibition loans and publications documenting both Michel’s ownership of various items in the appropriate period as well as at least one item published in another collection prior to the date of Michel’s acquisition. Additionally, Robert and Marianne Huber, Chicago, provided a statement that they sold the work to Michel in 1969 after acquiring it from a California collector “in about 1965.”

Provenance Information

[David Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, California], by the late 1950s; private collection, Los Angeles, California, by 1980; [Sotheby’s, New York, Pre-Columbian Art, Nov. 25, 1996, sale no. 6921, lot no. 187, reproduced]; by private sale through Sotheby’s to Assen and Christine Nicolov, Seattle, Washington, Dec. 15, 1997

Exhibition Information

None known

Publication Information

Karl Herbert Mayer, Maya Monuments: Sculptures of Unknown Provenance in the United States, Ramona, 1980, pp.37-38; illustrated in Mayer, Maya Monuments, Supplement I, Berlin, 1987, pl. 34.

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 Maya panel in two sections was outside its probable country of modern discovery (Mexico) by the late 1950s. Per the provenance published in Karl Herbert Mayer’s Maya Monuments, the panels were in the possession of David Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, California, by the late 1950s. This fact is corroborated by the provenance included in the auction catalogue for Sotheby’s Pre-Columbian Art auction (sale no. 6921) on November 25, 1996: “Primus/Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, acquired in the late 1950s.” The piece was published twice by Karl Herbert Mayer (1980, 1987). The panels cleared a search conducted by the Art Loss Register. SAM’s Pre-Columbian collection has very few works of scale, and this monumental piece would add a unique example of architectural art and offer an opportunity to present important themes of Maya iconography.

Provenance Information

Alfred Bush, 1958; given to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2016

Exhibition Information

None

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, the Princeton University Art Museum can make an informed judgment that the object was outside its probable country of modern discovery before 1970. Alfred Bush acquired this object while participating in an archaeological expedition sponsored by the University Archaeological Society of Brigham Young University in 1958 at the site of Aguacatal, Campeche, Mexico. The museum has a photograph of Bush at the dig as well as copies of correspondence Bush composed from the field that were sent to project benefactors, demonstrating that he was indeed in this area in 1958.

Provenance Information

Purchased in Guatemala by Alfred Stendahl for (Stendahl Galleries, Los Angeles, California) between 1965 and 1972;{1} purchased by Dr. Wally and Brenda Zollman, Indianapolis, Indiana, around about 1980; purchased by Michael and Patricia McCrory, Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1998; given to the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields in 2017.

{1} Alfred Stendahl's collecting activities suggest he purchased the vase between 1965 and 1972. Photography of the vase at Stendahl Galleries dates to 1976.

Exhibition Information

The Face of Ancient America: The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Noyes Gallery, December 03, 1988 to February 26, 1989

Publication Information

Published in the Exhibition Catalogue for 'The Face of Ancient America: The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Pre-Columbian Art'

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

The vase belonged to two collectors who have been involved with the IMA for decades. It has appeared in exhibitions and publications by renown archaeologists, Michael D. Coe and Lee Parsons. The object’s provenance in the United States goes back to at least 1972, per the report prepared by the law office of Kate Fitz Gibbon, which states that Stendahl Galleries records indicate acquisition of the vase between 1965 and 1972. It has been on loan to the IMA previously and was included in the IMA 1988 exhibition, “The Face of Ancient America: The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Precolumbian Art,” and was illustrated in the accompanying catalogue.

Provenance Information

Reportedly Collection of Jorge Castillo (d. 1977), Guatemala City; Reportedly Collection of David Bramhall, New York; [Judith Small Nash, Woodstock, NY, until 1990]; Steven Kossak, The Kronos Collections, New York, until 2015; Gift of Steven Kossak to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2015.

Exhibition Information

None

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

The work was reportedly in the collection of Jorge Castillo, a well-known collector of Maya art in Guatemala City who was active from the 1960s until his death in 1977. He left the majority of his collection to the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala City, where it was catalogued between 1975 and 1978 in preparation for the formation of a museum, now known as the Museo Popol Vuh. This work was not catalogued and added to the collection of the Museo Popol Vuh, and it is possible it was sold by Castillo before he had made plans for the formation of the museum.

Judith Small Nash sold the work in 1990 to the current owner. Ms. Nash may have acquired the work from David Bramhall (and recalls that he may have acquired it from the Castillo family). Mr. Bramhall was an active dealer in the 1960s and 1970s and reportedly had a long-term relationship with the Castillo family going back to the 1950s. The Judith Small Nash Gallery was one of the leading vendors of Precolumbian and Native American from the 1960s until the owner’s retirement in the 2000s.

Among the corpus of Maya crown jewels, this work is among the top five ever found, and the only one not currently in a public collection. The work is exceptional for its relative size, the beauty of the apple-green jade (the shade most preferred by the Maya), and the outstanding sculptural qualities of the work. The richly volumetric carving sets this work apart from known, flatter compositions. This gift enhances the Metropolitan Museum’s ability to convey the splendor of Mayan royal regalia to visitors.