Sale 218 Lot 355

NATIVE AMERICAN WAR PIPE CARVED WITH SYMBOLS OF FIGURE HOLDING A TOMAHAWK, LIGHTNING, TURTLE, BIRD, ANDSNAKE late 19th-early 20th century Patinated carved catlinite (red pipestone) pipe bowl in tomahawk form, a type traditionally associated with the Plains tribes. The bowl is pierced with the characteristic drilled smoke-hole and stem-socket of a war-club / tomahawk-style pipe, and its faceted surfaces are covered in incised pictographic and geometric decoration: a stick-figure warrior grasping a tomahawk, a zigzag lightning bolt, a turtle, a bird, and a snake, alongside chevron and banded line motifs and a likely sun symbol on the crown. The individual glyphs likely functioned as personal or protective iconography (the warrior / tomahawk figure signaling the pipe's martial purpose, and the lightning, turtle, bird and snake serving as guardian-spirit or visionary symbols) of the kind commonly incised on 19th-century catlinite war pipes. 2 inches x 1.5 inches x 1 inch
$1,200-1,800