**Originally Listed At $400**

Pre-Columbian, El Salvador/Guatemala/Honduras, Mayan Copador, ca. 600 to 950 CE. A polychrome ceremonial cylinder decorated in orange-red and black on a creamy beige ground. The upper register features four heads of casiques or scribes in profile, all adorned with large earspools, three with beaded necklaces, and all with beaded or tattooed circular motifs around their mouths. Beneath is a register comprised of three panels of stylized woven glyphoids. This large cylinder was most likely a cocoa cup. Did you know that chocolate was first cultivated by the Ancient Mayans? Perhaps odd to us, but the way they consumed it was not like the sweet delectable delight that we know today. They preferred to imbibe thick, bitter, frothy chocolate drinks - served cold rather than hot. Imagine this vessel filled with such a beverage! Size: 5.25" in diameter x 6.625" H (13.3 cm x 16.8 cm)

Provenance: private Los Angeles County, California, USA collection

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#136521

Repaired from several pieces with some visible break lines. Chips to rim. Normal surface wear with nicks and abrasions here and there. Possible repainting to heads. Manganese deposits on interior and exterior surfaces.