Excellent Rare Vintage Aztec Gold Plated Alloy Pin Brooch, by Salvador Teran for Marbel SA Mexico 1950s (#4)

Rare Vintage Aztec Necklace/Pin Brooch, by Salvador Teran for Marbel SA Mexico 1950s Gold plated alloy
3 1/4" long
10 grams
Vintage Excellent Condition!

Multi-section chest
"Multi-sectional chest (num. 167). This large pectoral, formed by several sections cast and joined together by gold hoops, is one of the pieces of the collection that unites, to its beauty and exquisite work of goldsmithing, the scientific interest that possess the hieroglyphics it contains and that, as we will see, is a sample of the cosmological conception that the ancient mixtecs had.

In the first section of this chest, a tlachtli or indigenous ball game appears represented. In this ball game there are two gods. One carries in his hand the chalchihuites headband topped with the stylized bird, which is characteristic of the sun and fire gods, while the other wears a mouth mask in the form of a bare jaw. Both have in their hands hule balls, and in the middle of them you see a human skull with a hole in the occipital and a stone knife inserted in the nose hole, like the turquoise-covered skull we found in the grave and that is a representation of Tezcatlipoca. On both sides of the walls of the tlachtli, in the place where the stone rings are usually seen through which the ball was passed, we found two snake heads.

The second section is made up of the solar disk, but surrounded by a stream of blood and a skull in the center.

The third section is made up of a square within which a knife with eyes and jaws appears, and from which flames emerge. The pedernal knife is a representation of the moon, as we see it in several cases in Vatican B, the Codix Borgia and also in the frescoes of Cempoala.

Finally, in the fourth section of the pectoral we see a figure with a very open mouth representing Tlaltecuhtli "the lord of the earth", who in manuscripts and sculptures appears as a fantastic figure of a frog, with the mouth armed with teeth and hands and feet of claws. Below this section hang four rosettes finished in feathers, and joined by spherical rattle hoops that in turn are attached to four long rattle rattle that finish off this beautiful chest, which has at the top a small gold hook to suspend it.

The representations that appear, from top to bottom, mean, consequently, the sky of the stars, the sun, the moon and the earth, that is, the order of the universe, as explained for example in the Rivers Code. The piece is a model of how an abstract, cosmological and religious conception, can be plastically expressed, with the beautiful language of this little masterpiece. ”

Alfonso Caso, Mexican Archaeology, Special Edition 41, Visual Catalog, page 25.

Room III The Treasure Of The Tomb 7 Mount Alban. 950-1521 AD. Late Postclassical (MA-V). Museum of Cultures of Oaxaca .