Lot 65

Taino Stone Ceremonial Axe - Monkey Effigy, Dominican Republic

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Lot 65
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Taino Stone Ceremonial Axe - Monkey Effigy, Dominican Republic
Taino Stone Ceremonial Axe - Monkey Effigy, Dominican Republic
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Taino Stone Ceremonial Axe - Monkey Effigy, Dominican Republic

Estimate: $1,300 - $1,900

Current Bid: $650

(1 Bid)
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 carved stone ceremonial axe, its mottled green-gray surface shaped into an elongated blade that swells gently toward a tapered cutting edge. At the opposite terminal, an effigy head emerges, perhaps a monkey, with a projecting muzzle, recessed eye, and the suggestion of an open mouth, while a small flange rises behind it like an ear or crest. The flared lateral wing and squared lower projection give the piece a cruciform silhouette, balancing zoomorphic head against working blade. Polished from a dense igneous or metamorphic stone, the axe was likely a prestige or ritual object rather than a utilitarian tool, its animal imagery binding the owner to the spirit world. Among the Taino of the Greater Antilles, such effigy celts carried cosmological weight, conflating power, status, and the animate forces dwelling in worked stone. Size: 4.5" W x 10.8" H x 1.3" D (11.4 cm W x 27.4 cm H x 3.3 cm D).

The Taino, dominant across the Greater Antilles at the moment of European contact, invested polished stone celts and axes with meaning far beyond their cutting function. Many were never hafted for use, serving instead as emblems of rank or as offerings. Zoomorphic effigies, frogs, birds, bats, and occasionally monkeys, drew on a rich cosmology in which animals mediated between the living and the realm of the cemis, the ancestral spirits and deities that animated Taino religious life. The labor invested in grinding and polishing dense stone into so deliberate a form underscores the object's value as a marker of prestige.

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

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Item # 198666

  • Condition: Excellent. Age-expected weathering with abrasions in some areas, but, otherwise, intact and excellent.

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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