Handmade Ceramic Doctor Skeleton Statuette, "Doctor Catrin"

Wearing a lab coat and carrying a stethoscope and bag, this charming skeletal doctor is crafted by Mexico's Jorge Escamilla. The artisan works in clay and steel wire to create the ceramic statuette, modeled after the tradition of José Guadalupe Posada's "La Calavera Catrina". The original "La Calavera Catrina" was a zinc etching created by the artist José Guadalupe Posada in Mexico around 1910. Posada created the character, a female skeleton with an elegant hat, as a satirical portrait to lampoon Mexican natives who aspired to European style and denied their own heritage. The catrina has since become an emblem of Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration and a popular folk art subject.