Olmec Bust Plaque

A wooden plaque with a concave, blue-painted recess holding the bust of an Olmec man, this object sits where Spratling's love of Pre-Columbian sculpture met his gift for staging it, the painted concavity framing the figure like a niche. He was a serious collector of ancient Mexican art, and the Olmec subject reflects the sources the Las Delicias workshop drew on throughout its life (Stromberg, p. 27).

The plaque was included in "The World of William Spratling," the museum exhibition organized by John Leeper of the McNay Art Institute that traveled across the United States in 1965, a show that pointedly set Spratling's own work beside Pre-Columbian art from his collection (Morrill, p. 77).

As a wood-and-silver object rather than a piece of jewelry, its standing rests on that exhibition history and its condition. The documented 1965 showing is the anchor here.