An enigmatic sculpture in the form of a monumental pearl. This monumental pearl in the Jean Roudillon collection, which appears to be one of the largest in his corpus, along with another from the William Spratling collection in Taxco El Viejo, are far too heavy to be worn. According to Carlo Gay, who published them both in his book Mezcala, they are not objects of use or manufacture, but symbolic sculptures for magico-religious use, i.e. votive sculptures. Still according to Carlo Gay, other symbolic sculptures with similarities and reciprocities to this corpus also existed in Olmec culture, and would thus be intimately linked throughout history. Other comparable beads, known as metamorphic stone beads, were also discovered in offering 16 of the Templo Mayor archaeological zone, within a "cosmogram", a quadrangular box where they would symbolize the four horizontal regions of the universe. It was therefore much later, in the time of the Mexica (formerly Aztecs), that these beads were rediscovered, and they seem to have crossed all the eras of pre-Hispanic Mexico, as Carlo Gay suggested. Mezcala, Guerrero region, 300 BC to 300 AD, Mexico Stone, green porphyry, small age-related dents and erosions, fine polished surface and age-related traces of oxidation. Max. diameter 14.8 cm See : Mezcala Ancient stone sculpture from Guerrero, Mexico Ed. Balsas Publications 1992, pp. 204-206. Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection before 1970 Publication and exhibition : Reproduced p. 238 n° 238 in: Mezcala Ancient stone sculpture from Guerrero Mexico, Carlos Gay and Frances Pratt, Ed. Balsas 1992 Exhibited and published on the back cover, Rennes Enchères sale catalog October 28, 2018 lot 204.