fine Veracruz greenstone effigy yoke, Classic, ca. A.D. 450-650

the ceremonial ballgame accoutrement carved as a toad with massive and strong proportions, distinguished by the fine rows of over 40 evenly spaced circular recesses along the mouth for teeth, the tongue extended and bulging eyes flattened and in rough texture, the brows curling back into the inflated parotid glands, and limbs pressed tightly to the bulging sides of the body; with numerous remains of deep red pigment on the mouth and face.  

Dehesa Collection

Earl Stendahl, Stendahl Gallery,  in conjunction with the Pierre Matisse Gallery

Ruth McClymond Maitland, acquired from the above before 1958

By descent to the present owner

J. W. Fewkes, "Certain Antiquities of Eastern Mexico", in  W. H. Holmes, ed., Bureau of American Ethnology, Twenty-Fifth Annual Report, 1903-04, Washington, D.C., 1907, Pl. CXIII, c and d

Fewkes (1907:256) notes the special attributes of this yoke and identifies the animal type despite the 'conventionalized' limbs. "A unique yoke in the Dehesa collection differs from the others in the presence of rows of holes on the lips or about the mouth, suggesting that teeth were once inserted on the edge of the oral opening. ..From the circular disks on the head and from the general shape it is not improbable that it is a frog."

Toad or frog yokes represent the Earth Dragon, which Joralemon (1976) noted is the symbol of power and fertility depicted from Preclassic times in the variations of reptiles and saurian figures.The U-shape of the yoke may represent the opening of a cave mouth, with the wearer symbolically at the entrance to the Underworld (Bradley 1997:65).