Exquisite Asian Artifacts

Delicate and intricately designed Asian pieces, including incense burners and pottery, highlighting cultural craftsmanship and historical significance.

Crown A.D. 900-1100 Lambayeque (Sicán) Cylindrical crowns that taper gently in the middle were common in high-status tombs at Batán Grande, a site now called the Sicán Archaeological Precinct, in the Santuario Histórico Bosque de Pómac, about 40 kilometers northeast of the modern city of Chiclayo on Perus North Coast. Made of sheet metal—in this case, an alloy of 44 percent gold, 32 percent silver, and 24 percent copper—it was worked from behind (repoussé) and from the front into a textile-like stepped-diamond pattern contained within an upper and lower border of animals in profile. The ends of the sheet were joined by metal lacing, as if it were a cloth. The Sicán tombs, located deep in monumental mudbrick platforms, held nearly unimaginable quantities of objects made of precious metal, shell, and cloth. A single tomb could contain as many as five such crowns, some featuring delicate openwork, and others, such as the present example, displaying repoussé designs. The repoussé stepped-