Ceramic Figures from Preclassic Mexico
Pen and Ink Drawings, 1966-73
PRATT, Frances (1913-2003). Original drawings for Ceramic Figures of Ancient Mexico (1979). [United States, 1966-1973.]

Pen-and-ink drawings of ceramic figures from Preclassic Mexico, ca. 1500 BC-300 AD. This collection of drawings were reproduced in the book, Ceramic Figures of Ancient Mexico (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck, 1979), for which Carlo T.E. Gay wrote the text. The drawings depict Preclassic ceramic figures spanning a range of regions and attributions, including Xochipala and San Jerónimo in Guerrero; Tlatilco and Tlapacoya in the Valley of Mexico; Chupícuaro, Guanajuato; and Queréndaro and Cuitzéo del Porvenir in Michoacán. All are drawn to scale in pen-and-ink pointillist technique, many enhanced with sepia red and yellow, and all are signed "Frances Pratt" and dated between 1966 and 1973. In her 1994 note included in the Sotheby's catalogue in which the drawings were sold, Pratt wrote: "Doggedly persisting for at least three years of neglecting family and friends, I completed an album of two-hundred and sixty drawings which I hope portray the gentle, human aspect of an ancient people. In addition, they may afford the scholar an opportunity to study many examples of pre-classic figurines that might, otherwise, no longer be available in actuality."

268 drawings on 224 leaves (355 x 280mm and smaller). 70 leaves are matted, and all housed in six cloth clamshell boxes (occasional light smudging; Zambrano Library of Congress call number labels on inside of boxes). Provenance: Frances Pratt (Sotheby's New York, 15 Nov. 1994, lot 79).