Lot 50

Taino Stone Celts, Pair - Greenstone & Basalt

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Lot 50
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Taino Stone Celts, Pair - Greenstone & Basalt
Taino Stone Celts, Pair - Greenstone & Basalt
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Taino Stone Celts, Pair - Greenstone & Basalt

Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500
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

Pre-Columbian, Dominican Republic, Taino, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A handsome pair of polished stone celts shaped by Taino hands on the island of Hispaniola, each tapering from a rounded poll to a keen working edge in the elongated almond silhouette characteristic of Antillean lithic industry. The larger example is ground from a fine sage-green stone, its surface silken from extended abrasion against finer and finer grits, with faint russet mineral staining lingering near the bit. Its companion, smaller and worked in dense black basalt, retains traces of the original pecking beneath a high polish and bears a natural calcite vein meandering across the blade.

Celts of this kind, known in the Greater Antilles as petaloid axes for their leaf-like profile, served as the principal heavy-duty cutting tools of Taino society. Hafted into wooden handles with cordage and resin, they felled trees for canoes and conucos, shaped house timbers, and carved the wooden duhos and cemis that anchored the spiritual life of the chiefdoms encountered by Columbus in 1492. Beyond their utility, the most carefully finished examples carried prestige, circulating as exchange goods and, on occasion, accompanying their owners into burial. Their quiet geometry, refined through countless hours of grinding, speaks to a culture that found beauty in the slow perfection of essential things. Size of larger (greenstone): 6.5" L x 2.3" W (16.5 cm L x 5.8 cm W).

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

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Item # 198696

  • Condition: Excellent. Minor chip to side of black celt with natural fissure to stone. Some dulling and small nicks to blade edges, but, otherwise, both are intact and excellent with smooth surfaces and a lustrous sheen.

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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