lot/native american woodland carved stone bear effigy miniature figure NQTaTsm 633076558 / For sale

lot/native american woodland carved stone bear effigy miniature figure NQTaTsm 633076558

For salePrice history

lot/native american woodland carved stone bear effigy miniature figure NQTaTsm 633076558

For salePrice history

Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!

Get listed now

Stay up-to-date with the antiques world

By subscribing, you are agreeing to the privacy policy. Unsubscribe anytime.

Barnebys

Barnebys HQ

Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm

Company

Explore More

Support

Native American Woodland Carved Stone Bear Effigy, Miniature Figure

All auctions / Sculptures / Native American Woodland Carved Stone Bear Effigy, Miniature Figure

4d 22hUS

Native American Woodland Carved Stone Bear Effigy, Miniature Figure

Native American, Woodland period. A bear pared down to its essentials: a heavy arched back, a blunt tapering muzzle, a single upswept point above the brow where the ears merge, and four stubby legs cut from one pebble of dense gray stone. The carver followed the cobble's natural swell rather than fighting it, and a tawny ochre stain washing across shoulder and flank reads almost as pelage. Surfaces are worn smooth by abrasion and long handling, the legs left as low nubs so the figure stands squarely. Miniature and palm-sized, animal effigies of this kind are generally understood as fetishes, charms carried or cached to draw on the power of the creature depicted, the bear presiding over healing, strength, and protection among many North American peoples. Its original use here is unrecorded; a talismanic role remains likely rather than proven. Zoomorphic stone effigies appear across eastern North America from the Late Archaic onward, carved as platform pipe bowls, gorget forms, and freestanding charms, and the bear is among the most persistent subjects. Ethnographic accounts gathered from later Woodland-descended peoples describe animal effigies kept in medicine bundles, periodically fed with cornmeal or ochre, and understood not as images of an animal but as the animal itself held in condensed form. The heavy ochre staining across the back is consistent with long burial in iron-rich soil, though deliberate pigment application cannot be excluded without analysis. Item # 204970

Estimate:$250

To the auction

View all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorSculptures

Estimate:

$250

To the auction