Vintage Mexican Cat Guardian Figure Nahua Guerrero Leather 18 in For Sale

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Vintage Mexican Cat Guardian Figure Nahua Guerrero Leather 18 in:
$225.00

Price

$225 | Free worldwide shipping

Description

A Nahua guardian figure from Xalitla, Guerrero, wearing the mask of a cat. The head is carved by hand in copal. Its plain dark coat, rounded ears and ringed blue-grey eyes read as the puma. It sits on a body cut from hide and painted as a turquoise dress, hung with dyed leather streamers and brass bells at the ears. Mid-20th century, 18 inches tall with an 11 inch arm span.

Provenance

Acquired through a fine-art gallery in Tonalá, Jalisco, in business for fifty years, whose owner vetted the piece personally. The gallery traces it to a private family collection, where it was kept for generations as a protector.

The cat

The puma, miztli in Nahuatl, is the jaguar’s plain-coated cousin and shares its mountains in Guerrero. When the Spanish brought house cats to Mexico, Nahuatl speakers named them after it: mizton, the little puma.

The gallery sets this figure in the tradition of the angelitos, the children taken young who are held to rise straight to heaven as little angels. It is a guardian for a child’s soul.

The dress is painted in the Alto Balsas manner of the Nahua villages on the Balsas river. A white bird with a rainbow tail crosses the chest. Below, a peach bird with oxblood wings stands before a fanned bouquet ringed in white petals. The hem is a magenta band with white hooks, the wrists carry red cuffs, and the ankles purple bands painted with white rings.

Condition

Wear consistent with age and handling. The paint on the mask is rubbed through to a reddish ground in places and darkened overall. The hide shows fine crazing, flaking on the white bird at the chest, a horizontal line where its two panels join, and paint losses along the hem and at the top of the right leg. The leather streamers are faded. The mask, bells and cord are intact, with no breaks or visible repairs.

Appraisal

Gallery replacement value: $500. This is what it would cost to replace this piece through a gallery, for insurance and estate purposes.

About the photographs

Some photographs show the figure staged in a setting. Those backgrounds are digitally created only to help you imagine the piece in a room. The figure itself is unaltered and untouched in every image. Plain-background photographs of the actual piece are included as well. Only the figure is included.

Shipping and import fees

The price includes DHL Express shipping anywhere in the world, with tracking. The piece is packed by Diseños de Cartón in Guadalajara.

Import duty and tax are the buyer’s responsibility. The tariff code is 9705.10, collectors’ pieces of ethnographic interest. Most markets let it in duty-free, and it qualifies for a reduced tax rate wherever one exists.

If your delivery country differs from your account country, message me before purchasing.

Estimates on a $225 value:

Destination | Import duty | Import tax | Estimated total

United States | 0% | none collected at import | $0

Canada | 0% | 5% GST, or 13–15% HST by province | $11 – $34

United Kingdom | 0% | 5% reduced-rate import VAT on collectors’ pieces | about $11

European Union | 0% | 5.5% – 13.5% reduced rate, set by your country | $12 – $30

Australia | none on orders under AUD 1,000 | 10% GST, charged at checkout | about $23, paid at checkout

Where tax is collected at delivery, DHL adds a small advancement fee, typically $12 to $20.

Questions

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God bless,