Precolumbian Deity Figure with Open Vessel

This figure was given to my husband and me in 1984 by a Mexican national we did business with in Albuquerque, NM. He traveled between his native state in MX and the big Navajo reservation in and around Grants, NM, where he lived with his Navajo wife, children. (He also had a Mexican family back home but that's another story.) To thank us for a bit of good business he bestowed this figure on us.

The figure represents a deity and the open vessel on its back is meant to hold something, we don't know what, probably not flowers. The figure measures approx. 3.5 H x 3.75 W" irregular. Weighs 0.5.4 lbs on my very exact postal scale. The material is some sort of reddish clay pottery. A slightly metallic sound can be heard when tapped with finger. It does not respond to a magnet, however.

Most so called experts who have seen it sofar have dismissed it as a modern replica for the tourist trade. However, I have traveled myself in Mexico--and to a few other states in Central America--and have not seen anything quite like it among the plethora of offerings to tourists there. It has an "old" feel to it, not that of a replica, even articficially aged replicas of which I saw plenty in my travels.

What say the experts on the Antiques Board? Precolumbian or Pseudo-Precolumbian? Approximate age? Name of deity? Purpose?

It is not for sale as it occupies a coveted niche here with memories of my time in NM, but I'd still love to know what he or she is. Any reply gratefully accepted with thanks in advance.

 

Hopefully @Taupou will see this.

 

Liz, I'm afraid I have to agree with the so-called experts.
My parents bought two similar ones ca 1970 from a family of vendors in San Juan de Teotihuacán, in the grounds of the pyramid complex. One with a rounded mask like yours, which they called a moon deity, and one with a more squared Veracruz style mask, which they called the sun deity.
I was there with my parents, and the vendors never pretended they were pre-Columbian, they said the pots were made by family members.

True pre-Columbian Mexican ceramics have a smoother surface, and are usually more detailed.

 

Thank you, AJ! This is more than we knew before, the Moon deity name f.ex. Guess we should have had the "mate" too, the Sun, but our Mexican business friend did not supply it.

Would love to see pictures of your parents' souvenir figures, do you have any?

 

I also agree with the experts. The face is very typical of modern copies/reinterpretations made by artisans near the great tourist site of Teotihuacan. Some original/genuine fragments found at the site:

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/...aphy&phrase=a.d. teotihuacan&sort=mostpopular

 

Sorry, no. They were sold after my mother passed.