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Lot 71B
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Taino Carved Wood Cohoba Snuff Inhaler
Taino Carved Wood Cohoba Snuff Inhaler
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Pre-Columbian, Caribbean, Taino, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A slender wooden inhaler tapering from a bifurcated upper terminal to a narrow shaft, its surface now deeply checked into a fine network of fissures that records centuries of slow desiccation. The forked crown, two rounded lobes flanking a central notch, would have served as the nasal piece, pressed against the nostrils so that pulverized cohoba could be drawn upward in a single inspired breath. Among the Taino of the Greater Antilles, cohoba was the sacrament of the cacique and the behique, a hallucinogenic powder ground from the seeds of Anadenanthera peregrina and inhaled to summon the cemi spirits, divine the future, and negotiate with ancestors. Chroniclers of the early contact period, Ramon Pane and Bartolome de Las Casas among them, described the rite in detail: the seated petitioner, the carved duho stool, the bifurcated tube applied to the nose, the violent purgation that preceded vision. Surviving wooden examples are exceedingly rare, the tropical climate and the rupture of Taino society after 1492 having claimed almost everything organic. The eroded grain and patient erosion of this piece speak to its considerable age and to the gravity of the ceremony it once served. Mounted on a custom display stand. Size: 1.5" W x 3.6" H (3.8 cm W x 9.1 cm H); on included custom stand: 4.5" H (11.4 cm H).

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

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Item # 202086

  • Condition: Fair. Chipping and flaking with natural fissures to wood, all commensurate with age. Liberal remaining detail with rich patina throughout.

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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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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