Featured Can this attributed to a cultural myth?

I think this pendant is South American and pictures a jaguar and snake. Can it be attributed to a particular culture like Incan, Mayan or Aztec? It is 2" diameter with the silver picture inlaid into the background. There is also a piece of MOP inlay. The background feels like plastic but I really don't know the material. Is there a story associated with image?

Thanks for looking and any information.

 

Tezcatlipoca dominating Quetzalcoatl?

 

I will look that up. As long as I don't have to say the words out loud, I should be ok. Thank you.

 

Agree, so likely Mexican.

It looks like tortoiseshell, which is often inlaid.

 

Tortoiseshell did run across my mind, briefly. I hope it's not that as I don't think I can sell it.

So Mexican and Aztec according to what I found after I looked into Marote's names.
Thanks to both of you.

 

Agree with all above. Quetzalcoatl is depicted with a scorpion tail in this instance.

 

Agreed it looks like tortoiseshell. See if it lights up blue-green under UV.

 

I will test it with a UV and let you know.

 

You don’t have to always spell out what the material is if you don’t want to. If you take good photos those that know, will know, and they’ll likely pay a premium. Those that don’t, won’t, and it won’t matter. Pretty neat piece though, may be a keeper!

Quetzalcoatl is pretty common on jewelry from Mesoamerica. You’ll see him/it again.

 

Given Antiquers is the top of every google/lens result, one should ask to nuke a post if one was hypothetically going to do that with non-antique items. That may be my paranoia, but...

 

way more guests and bots here..than we have members !!


online right now..
(members: 3, guests: 463, robots: 27)

but it's likely plastic..............

 

Sorry, I took me a while to get back. Here are the results under black light. I think Komokwa was right, plastic. Thanks to everyone who took the time to help me out. You are all appreciated more than you know.

 

I’m not sure I understand what you mean? I’m not suggesting any type of misleading or hiding of anything. You just don’t always have to describe everything in exhaustive detail. Many sellers give items basically no written description and let images do the talking. I’m the type that does tend to over explain, overanalyze, over describe in my listings. Sometimes I catch myself and wonder why I do it. I’m not sure if helps sales and it takes a lot of time. The majority of professional estate sale runners and auction houses doesn’t spell out every material an item is compromised of, particularly not controversial ones. They are definitely strategically vague in many cases. I don’t understand why you’d want a post here gone if you were going to sell something without listing its “ingredients” comprehensively. There’s nothing saying you have to like an FDA. Just curious.

 

Tortoiseshell that is not an antique is illegal to sell.* That's why people are vague about naming it, so they can get around site terms banning it (ebay) or to prevent any trouble from their government's trade authority. If you post here and identify the object as real tortoiseshell, then sell it, there is a chance that anyone could Lens your photos and directly find the thread where you discussed knowledge that it is regulated/banned tortoiseshell. Being vague or omitting knowledge in the listing itself will have no effect when a government entity can point directly to the very public place where you discussed knowing what it was.

As I said, I'm paranoid. Likelihood of that happening is not high, but it's not zero either. I personally wouldn't want to find out if I "won" that lotto.

*Illegal according to where you live, compliance with CITES (ie Japan says they are, but are not in practice lol), types of objects, how they were acquired, if you have paperwork which documents their age, if they are exported, interstate laws if in US, etc. etc. "Your Mileage May Vary" and all that.

 

Very fair point. I’m paranoid myself, I just assume others aren’t to my level. Personally for me before it even gets to that level I wouldn’t do it just because I can’t risk losing my platform accounts. Selling items the platform doesn’t allow is tempting but in the end not worth it for something that is much more than a hobby for me. If you’re a hobby seller it may be worth taking chances here and there. Granted they are fairly lenient and as long as you’re not a repeat offender you won’t have a big issue. It’s when you repeatedly break the same rule that they get serious. Ask me how I know! Don’t really, but you know…

 

At this point it's Ooops All Bots so you can be doing everything right and they'll still misinterpret something and screw up your business. Then you get a human and they don't know how to change anything the bot did. Nightmare.

Ebay bots didn't like that I listed something described as "bovine bone" and told me that "bovine" is a type of ivory(??) and I needed to specify what it was made from?? Ohkayyy.

Many years ago I had a corporate bot flag a piece of clothing I was selling as fake, and that selling platform removed all my listings from google because of it. I responded with the tags proving it was a vintage item with a proper RN code. The corporate rep actually apologized and said they were wrong. Things got reinstated. But boy did I learn a lesson about how quickly they can nuke you on their mistakes. Let alone ones you try to skate by with... I don't really want to play with governmental suits and fines too. Yikes.