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Lot 81A
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Mississippian Pottery Effigy Pipes - Frog & Owl, Pair
Mississippian Pottery Effigy Pipes - Frog & Owl, Pair
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Native American, Mississippian culture, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A pair of shell-tempered earthenware effigy pipes shaped by the hands of Mississippian potters. The larger, a crouching frog, hunkers low against its bowl, broad-mouthed and bulbous-eyed, with splayed toes incised into the clay and a body burnished to a smoky gray. Its companion rises upright as an owl, round-faced and watchful, the eyes ringed with concentric incisions and the breast feathers suggested by chevroned lines below. Both were fashioned as smoking pipes, the bowl hollowed within the animal form and a stem channel bored through the base, uniting the practical and the symbolic. In Mississippian belief, amphibian and bird carried associations with water, regeneration, and the spirit world, making such effigies fit vessels for tobacco offered in ritual and gathering alike. Size of larger (frog): 4.2" W x 2.7" H x 5.3" D (10.7 cm W x 6.9 cm H x 13.5 cm D).

The Mississippian culture flourished across the river valleys of the American Southeast and Midwest from roughly 1000 to 1500 CE, building earthen mound centers such as Cahokia and sustaining far-reaching trade networks. Shell-tempered pottery, in which crushed mussel shell was added to the clay to strengthen it, is a defining technological hallmark of the period. Animal effigies were a recurring theme in Mississippian art, where frogs evoked water and renewal and raptors or owls were linked to the Upper World and to themes of vigilance and the supernatural. Tobacco smoked in such pipes was a sacred plant, employed to seal alliances, accompany prayer, and mediate between the human and spirit realms.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA Collection; ex-private Denver, Colorado, USA collection; ex-private Flushing, New York and Ridgeway, Colorado, USA collection; owl was found in Monroe County, Tennessee, USA

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Item # 203155

  • Condition: Good. Owl has been repaired with some chipping and minor losses along visible break lines. Frog has a few stable surface fissures. Both have expected age wear with nicks and abrasions as shown. Otherwise, frog is intact and both are very nice with good remaining detail.

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

Artemis Fine Arts

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