On view
Rattle in the form of six gourds,
500–700 CE
More Context
Didactics
Loma Negra, one of the Piura valley sites discovered in the 1960s, is best known for massive quantities of Mochica metalwork found in deep shaft tombs. This six-chambered bell or rattle is reportedly from that site. Bells of similar form, as indicated by their position when found in the famous burials of Sipán or depicted in other media, were worn on the belts of important male individuals, often at the front, back, and sides of the body. With metal balls placed within each chamber, an assemblage of such adornments would have collectively made a shower of jingling tones enveloping the wearer with even the slightest move. This bell is distinctive for the gourd shape of each chamber (most known examples consist of a series of simple spheres).
Information
500–700 CE
South America, Peru, Piura Province, vicinity of Loma Negra, North coast
Before 1969, John L. (1926-2016) and Sue (1928-2005) Tishman, New York (P33) [1]; 2007, John and Sue Tishman sold to private collector, New York [2]; November 27, 2020, private collection, New York, sold to Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes:
[1] The Tishmans assigned numbers to works in their collection, whereby lower-numbered objects were acquired prior to higher-numbered objects. The numbers changed over time as works were donated or sold from the collection. A series of appraisals of the collection produced by Robert Sonin, copies of which are in the curatorial file and date as early as 1970, list this object as P29/P33. Another work on the list, numbered P31 and P35, respectively in different versions, was exhibited and published in 1969, providing a terminus ante quem by which the proposed object was in the Tishman collection.
[2] As per letter from John L Tishman to private collection. Copy in curatorial file.
