This piece is a vintage mid-to-late 20th-century Mexican tourist folk art sculpture. It was hand-carved out of local dark green serpentine stone, featuring a classic interlocking "69" composition of figures explicitly styled to mimic ancient West Mexican Pre-Columbian erotic artifacts (such as those from the Colima and Nayarit traditions). It is a wonderfully expressive, tactile piece of vintage souvenir art with a smooth pocket patina and traditional white powder slurry accenting the deep incised lines
Period: 1970s (Mid-to-Late 20th Century)
Origin: Mexico (Guerrero or Colima lapidary traditions)
Size Classification: Miniature
Dimensions: 1.65 x 0.79 x 1.18 inches (Approximately 1 1/4 inches tall)
Materials: Soapstone with marble-dust groove accent
Style: Folk Art, Pre-Columbian Revival Style
Theme/Symbolism: Erotic Interlocking Figures
Artist/Maker: Unsigned Artisan, Regional Cooperative
Condition: Excellent vintage condition with smooth handling wear on high points and authentic tooling marks on the flat base.
History: Hand-crafted during the mid-century Mexican tourism boom, this piece reflects the output of regional lapidary artisan cooperatives in areas like Guerrero and Colima. Rather than being individual studio pieces or factory-molded items, these small serpentine pocket curios were crafted collectively using traditional hand files, rasps, and marble-dust slurries to recreate an ancient Pre-Columbian aesthetic for travelers. Emerging right alongside the cultural shifts of the 1970s sexual revolution, such playful and taboo-breaking pocket curios captured a newfound mainstream freedom and openness around human intimacy.
