Lot 72 — [NATIVE AMERICAN] c. 1800 Pipe Tomahawk Head 

A Hand-Forged Pipe Tomahawk Head, Circa 1800, Mounted on a Later Wooden Haft.

Note: The circa 1800 date applies to the forged head.

A pipe tomahawk with an early hand-forged iron head, its blade expanding from a narrow neck to a broad, gently curved cutting edge. Opposite the blade, a compact smoking bowl rises on a constricted stem, with raised moldings defining its upper and lower contours. The eye has rounded shoulders and a small projection beneath the blade junction. Dark oxidation and scattered pitting cover the metal.

The head is fitted to a later wooden handle with pronounced longitudinal grain, tapering from the eye toward a small metal terminal. Its relatively plain treatment leaves the proportions of the forged head readily apparent, particularly the contrast between the spreading blade and the closely modeled bowl.

By about 1800, pipe tomahawks occupied an established place in the trade and diplomacy of North America. Their development reflected the work of blacksmiths responding to Native customers, combining the functions of hatchet and smoking pipe in a single implement. They circulated through purchase and gift exchange, and could acquire significance as personal possessions or instruments of political negotiation.

The Lewis and Clark expedition carried pipe tomahawks for presentation to Native leaders, while Meriwether Lewis also carried one for his own use in shared smoking. Such exchanges drew upon existing Indigenous diplomatic practices in which tobacco and gifts helped establish relationships and reciprocal obligations.

The example offered here retains an early forged head of this historically important type, with the replacement haft providing its current mounting.