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Taino Stone Petaloid Celt Axe - Carved Cemi Face

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Lot 1
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Taino Stone Petaloid Celt Axe - Carved Cemi Face
Taino Stone Petaloid Celt Axe - Carved Cemi Face
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Taino Stone Petaloid Celt Axe - Carved Cemi Face

Estimate: $3,000 - $4,500

Starting Bid: $1,500

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Pre-Columbian, Dominican Republic, Taino, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A petaloid celt of dense green-grey stone, its almond contour tapering from a softly rounded poll to a keen, lance-like bit. The polished body has been worked to a smooth, almost waxen finish that catches light across the fine mineral speckling of the matrix. Across the upper face, an incised visage emerges in low relief: a triangular eye with sharply cut pupil paired with a concentric, sun-like roundel, the two suspended above a faintly indicated mouth or chin line. The asymmetry of the gaze, one eye geometric, the other a vortex, lends the piece an arresting cosmological charge, perhaps invoking dualities of sun and moon, day and night, life and afterlife so central to Taino metaphysics.\n\nPetaloid axes of this kind served the Taino of the Greater Antilles as both utilitarian tools and prestige objects. The finer examples, like this one, were rarely hafted for labor; instead they functioned as ceremonial implements, status markers, or offerings buried with the dead. The carved face likely embodies a cemi, the animating spirit dwelling within stone, wood, or shell, through which ancestors and deities communicated with the living. Taino caciques and behiques (shamans) curated such objects as conduits of power, the polished stone itself understood as alive.\n\nThe Dominican Republic, occupying the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, was the heartland of the Classic Taino chiefdoms encountered by Columbus in 1492. Within a generation those polities had collapsed, but their lithic art survives as some of the most accomplished sculpture of the Caribbean. Size: 4" W x 9.6" H x 1.7" D (10.2 cm W x 24.4 cm H x 4.3 cm D).

Provenance: ex-private collection, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, USA, collected from 2010 to 2015

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Item # 198731

  • Condition: Excellent. Light surface wear with rubbing and loss of detail. Otherwise, intact and excellent 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