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Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Sican-Lambayeque / Chimu culture, ca. 900 to 1500 CE. A rare and quite remarkable copper tumi or ceremonial knife of sizable scale and meticulously incised with Chimu warriors. The long, flaring handle features 5 squares; the 2 uppermost with a pair of standing warriors, each clasping tumis and clothed in a crescentic headdress and feathered bustle. Conversely, the 3 lower registers are bisected by a curled motif, each with one half enclosing a warrior. The semicircular blade is decorated with a seated warrior in profile flanked by a similar pair of standing soldiers, all encompassed by a perimeter of a continuous curled motif. Tumis are ceremonial knives that often accompanied the warrior or shaman into the afterlife and important figures painted or molded on ceramic vessels are often seen holding these ceremonial objects, just as the incised warriors are armed with them in this example. Size: 6.8" W x 15.75" H (17.3 cm x 40 cm); 17.3" H (43.9 cm) on included custom stand.

Sican elites were patrons of workshops that made fine metal objects like this tumi and its danglers, and they took their wealth with them when they passed away. Buried in mounds, these individuals would be entombed in high style.

This piece has been published in Sotheby's New York "Pre-Columbian Art" Tuesday, May 10, 1995 catalog as lot 211.

Cf. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979.206.944.

Provenance: ex-private Dunn collection, Ferndale, Michigan, USA, acquired prior to 2004; ex-Sotheby's New York, New York, USA, May 10th, 1995, lot 211; ex-property from the Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls Collection of Pre-Columbian Art

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

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#182046

Expected light surface wear as shown, but otherwise intact and excellent with liberal remaining detail and rich patina. Old Sobethy's label on custom stand.