**Originally Listed At $600**

Pre-Columbian, Central America, Costa Rica, Guanacaste/Nicoya region, ca. 200 to 600 CE. A beautiful ceremonial hand tool known as a celt, hand-carved from sage-green stone with faint white and black veining. The ovoid pendant has a stocky body, a tapered handle, and an acutely-angled blade edge. Atop the smoothed obverse face is a stylized lizard with a quartet of bent legs protruding from the sides of the stocky body, a lightly curved tail, and a tapered head with a pair of raised hemispherical eyes. The celt is biconically-drilled through the upper shoulder for suspension, and the lengthy ridge on the verso shows how this fragment was removed from a larger piece of greenstone. Size: 2.125" W x 6.5" H (5.4 cm x 16.5 cm).

Provenance: private Probst collection, Monterey, California, USA, acquired in the early 1990s; ex-Butterfield & Butterfield (November 30, 1992)

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#145033

Repaired from a few large pieces with light adhesive residue along break lines. Minor nicks to blade edge and body, with softening to some raised details, and light encrustations along verso. Light earthen deposits throughout. Old inventory number written in red ink on verso.