A Maya Figure of a Ballplayer, Jaina, Late Classic, ca. A.D. 550-950

serving as a figural whistle, the nobleman's face with finely chiseled features and scarification extending from the sides of his mouth, poised in a reverential gesture with the right arm across the torso and supporting  the projecting effigy hacha, wearing a long loincloth, medallions on the knees, large shell pectoral, jewelry and plumed headdress secured with a bird beak; traces of Maya blue remain on the yoke and hacha.

Peter I. Hirsch

Acquired from the above, 1967

Kansas City, The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum, Kansas City Collects, A Selection of Works of Art Privately Owned in the Greater Kansas City Area, January 22-February 28, 1965, catalogue to the exhibition by Ralph T. Coe, pg. 179, illus., caption 192c

Overall very good. Repair across bottom of loincloth flap extending to PL knee, there is remains of shiny substance indicating adhesive, some spawling on back of lower legs.
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This is one of the rare depictions of a figure in full ball game regalia, honoring this nobleman's important and victorious status. See Whittington (2001:cat. no. 100), for a figure in the Yale University Art Gallery.