Nayarit Seated Couple with Bowls, Ixtlán del Río style Protoclassic, circa 100 BC-AD 250

Joseph Haddad, Los Angeles 
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from above in 1972

Inventoried by Hasso von Winning, November 2, 1972, no. 99, a and b

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles, Companions of the Dead, Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, October 11 - November 27, 1983

Hasso von Winning, Shaft Tomb Figures of West Mexico, Los Angeles, 1974, p. 168, fig. 293
Jacki Gallagher, Companions of the Dead, Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, Los Angeles, 1983, p. 114, fig. 144

The seated couple is thoroughly engaged in an advanced stage of ritual feasting; they lean deeply towards each other, heads turned in a committed expression. The male is drinking from his oval bowl and the woman holds a deep receptacle at the ready. Adorned for a ceremonial occasion, each figure wears classic patterned clothing, rounded headbands, multiple necklaces, and looped nose ornaments;  the woman's face and body is particularly well painted with geometric tattoos and each has raised cicatrice shoulder designs. The male wears a band of tiny conch shells attached to his left upper armband. Each figure has a small opening at the back serving as the firing hole.