Percy Medina Quail Gourd Ornament

This magnificent Quail Gourd Ornament, created and signed by Percy Medina, features an intricate partridge design, which graces both sides. A Quechua Indian born in the Peruvian Andes, Percy Medina is a fourth generation master of the ancient art of burnt gourds, or mates burilados. Medina creates his designs with tools he devised as a child—home-fashioned chisels and burning quinoa wood sticks—with which he painstakingly “etches” dried Peruvian gourds. Medina achieves up to 18 natural tones by varying the strength of his breaths on the stick embers. As each Percy Medina Quail Gourd Ornament is entirely handcrafted, no two will be precisely the same. Cord hangers are included.  Approx. 2.5-3"dia.

Museum Provenance

A pyro-engraved Percy Medina gourd is displayed in our National Museum of the American Indian. One of the most extensive collections of Native American art and artifacts in the world, our National Museum of the American Indian includes approximately 800,000 objects, representing more than 1,000 indigenous cultures throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Every Smithsonian purchase will arrive with a museum provenance card explaining how it is adapted from or inspired by an object or objects in our collection.