Pre-Columbian, Costa Rica, Guanacaste-Nicoya, ca. 300 BCE to 500 CE. A finely carved and string cut jadeite anthropomorphic axe god celt with a mesmerizing visage presentig a toothy grimace and topped by a decorative headband incised with a running Greek key motif and a celt-shaped body with joined hands over the abdomen. This jadeite celt has been attached to a substantive arched 14K+ gold bezel (comprised of 60% gold) in order to be wearable. A very special example accompanied by a card stating that the late Robert Stroessner of the Denver Art Museum attributed it. Size: 2.625" H (6.7 cm); 3.5" H (8.9 cm) including modern 14K+ gold bezel. Comes with 20" L (50.8 cm) modern cord
The value of jade in the Pre-Columbian world lay in its symbolic power; scholars believe its color was associated with water and vegetation. Costa Rica, along with Mesoamerica, is one of the two regions where jade was extensively carved in the Pre-Columbian world. The earliest example of worked jade, a pendant excavated from a burial site on the Nicoya Peninsula, dated to the mid-first millennium BCE. It appears that jade continued to be carved into personal ornaments, usually depicting anthropomorphic deities or animals such as birds, monkeys, or frogs, until approximately 700 CE when gold became the favored material to fashion such ornaments.
Provenance: ex-HD Enterprise, Hank Johnson, Denver, Colorado, USA
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#144493
Condition
Minor surface wear with minute nicks to celt edge. Inherent veining to stone. Jadeite axe celt is ancient. Gold bezel and cord are modern. Beautiful and wearable.