Lot 78

Mississippian Stone Ceremonial Crowned Mace

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Lot 78
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Mississippian Stone Ceremonial Crowned Mace
Mississippian Stone Ceremonial Crowned Mace
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Mississippian Stone Ceremonial Crowned Mace

Estimate: $1,300 - $1,900
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT (In Progress)
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Native American, Mississippian culture, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A finely shaped ceremonial mace carved from a single piece of pale, fine-grained stone, its pale cream surface flecked with subtle iron-oxide inclusions that lend it an almost lithic blush. The form tapers from a rounded, polished grip into a flaring, crowned head, the upper terminus rising into a peaked crest with sharply defined lateral wings, the silhouette suggesting both weapon and emblem. Each transition has been worked with disciplined symmetry, the ridges crisp, the planes burnished to a soft sheen that betrays the patient labor of abrasion and polishing.

Stone maces of this type belong to the ceremonial regalia of the Mississippian world, the mound-building societies that flourished across the river valleys of the American Southeast and Midwest between roughly 1000 and 1500 CE. Far too refined for combat, such objects functioned as insignia of rank, perhaps held aloft in ritual processions or interred with elite individuals as markers of status within the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Iconographic parallels appear in the engraved shell gorgets and repoussé copper plates of the period, where supernatural warriors and bird-impersonators brandish nearly identical bladed and crowned forms.

The "crowned" terminus, with its paired finials flanking a central spur, likely echoes a cosmological scheme more than a martial one, perhaps an avian reference, perhaps a stylized rendering of axial symbols central to Mississippian thought. To hold it is to grasp an artifact of considerable political theatre, a baton of authority polished by ritual rather than by the friction of battle. Size: 13.8" L x 3" W (35.1 cm L x 7.6 cm W).

Provenance: private Colorado, USA Collection; ex-private Denver, Colorado, USA collection; ex-private Flushing, New York and Ridgeway, Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 203077

  • Condition: Excellent. Some light surface wear, but otherwise intact and in excellent condition with smooth surfaces.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000