Pre-Columbian, southwestern Argentina or south-central Chile, Mapuche people, ca. 1500 CE. Two fine and intact pipes meant for smoking tobacco that are hand-carved from a hardstone of a glossy brown and gray hue. The larger pipe has a conical mouthpiece that would have perhaps had bone or some other material fitted over it to extend it. The body is elongated and thick, with a receptacle opening that is slightly taller than the rest of the pipe, and a vertically drilled chamber, connecting the bowl to the inhalation hole. The other pipe is simple, but just as painstakingly pecked and polished into a cylindrical stem and inhalation hole drilled all the way through to the bulbous receptacle bowl. Pipe forms like these were favored for ritualistic smoking and used as symbolic gifts exchanged between different cultural groups throughout ancient Chile and Argentina. Styles made in different regions have been found far afield from their lands of origin! Size of larger pipe: 2.75" L x 1" W x 1" H (7 cm x 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm)

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection; ex-private Bettina Schwimmer collection, Chicago, Illinois, USA, collected from 1955 to 2006

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#156983

Chips to receptacle rim and surface abrasions on both, but otherwise intact and very good. Mineral deposits and earthen encrustations within the bowls. Encrustations in the mouthpiece of the smaller pipe.