Lot 119

Mississippian Carved Conch Shell Maskettes - Weeping Eye, Pair

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Lot 119
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Mississippian Carved Conch Shell Maskettes - Weeping Eye, Pair
Mississippian Carved Conch Shell Maskettes - Weeping Eye, Pair
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Mississippian Carved Conch Shell Maskettes - Weeping Eye, Pair

Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500

Starting Bid: $500

(0 Bids)
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 pair of carved marine shell maskettes from the Mississippian world, each pared down to the essentials of a human face. The smaller example, warm honey in tone, is the more articulated of the two: pierced eyes set within concentric incised rings, a slender ridged nose, and a small drilled mouth, with three suspension perforations placed at the brow and chin. Cascading from the outer corners of each eye are zigzag bands, the iconographic shorthand known as the "weeping eye" or forked-eye motif, a hallmark of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex and often read as falling tears or as the markings of the peregrine falcon, an avian alter ego of warriors and chiefly elites. The larger maskette, cut from a heavier section of conch, presents the same triangular facial silhouette in a more austere register, its features reduced to two drilled eyes and a single mouth perforation, its surface bearing the chalky patina of long burial. Worked from the lustrous whorls of lightning whelk or queen conch traded inland from the Gulf Coast, such maskettes were strung as gorgets or attached to garments, mediating between the wearer and the supernatural cosmology of the Mississippian temple-mound centers, from Spiro and Etowah to Moundville. They carry, in miniature, the weight of an iconography that bound together warfare, mortuary ritual, and the upper world. Size of larger: 2.9" W x 4" H (7.4 cm W x 10.2 cm H).

Provenance: private Colorado, USA Collection; ex-private Denver, Colorado, USA collection; ex-private Flushing, New York and Ridgeway, Colorado, USA collection, acquired in 2014

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Item # 203054

  • Condition: Good. Flaking, chips, and abrasions commensurate with age. Liberal remaining detail.

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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