This small gold feline head originally adorned a larger object or construction, now missing; its function is unknown. Two nearly identical feline heads, from the Museo de Oro del Perú collection, are attached to the outer points of a crescent-shaped tweezers, fashioned to be suspended like a pendant from a cord. Another tweezers in the same collection is also adorned with full-bodied felines, whose heads are similar to this piece. Another such feline in the same collection is attached to a gold band that may have functioned as a sash or headband.

Although the shape of these feline heads is similar to the profile feline heads depicted in the elaborated Huari iconography from Middle Horizon, it construction technique put this piece together with gold objects said to have been found near Frías, an inland town in the foothills of the upper Piura valley, in the north coast of Peru. The objects from Frías share a technique of construction that differs from what is characteristic of the central and southern Andes and more related to Ecuadorian traditions.

Benson, Elizabeth P. 1963 Handbook of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C., p. 66, cat. 367.

Boone, Elizabeth Hill (ED.) 1996 Andean Art at Dumbarton Oaks. Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks; No. 1. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C., p. 283-285, pl. 79.

Purchased from John Wise, New York (dealer), by Robert Woods Bliss, 1960.

Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art, Washington, DC, 1960-1962.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Pre-Columbian Collection, Washington, DC.