BOULDER, COLO.- A carved volcanic stone brazier depicting Huehueteotl, the ancient Mesoamerican god of fire, will be offered at auction during ARTEMIS x ARTE | Pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial Art on June 11, 2026, in Louisville, Colorado.

The work, attributed to Teotihuacan during the Classic Period, circa 450–650 CE, carries an estimate of $25,000 to $37,500, with a starting bid of $12,500.

Carved from gray volcanic stone, the large brazier presents Huehueteotl as an aged, seated figure hunched beneath the weight of a circular vessel. The sides of the brazier are decorated with bar and diamond motifs, while the deity is shown with one hand cupped and the other open, palm facing outward. His face is deeply expressive, with wide recessed eyes, a sunken, toothless mouth, earrings and a knotted loincloth visible at the back.

Measuring 15.25 inches high by 15 inches wide, the object is described by the auction house as a “well carved, beautiful example.”

Huehueteotl, often translated as the “Old God,” was one of the most enduring deities in ancient Mesoamerica. Associated with fire, age, domestic hearths and cosmic renewal, he was frequently represented as an elderly figure bearing a brazier on his head or back. In Teotihuacan, one of the most powerful urban centers of the ancient Americas, such images carried both ritual and symbolic importance, linking fire to household life, ceremony and cycles of transformation.

The present example’s material—volcanic stone—adds another layer of meaning. Teotihuacan itself was shaped by a volcanic landscape, and stone braziers of this type reflect the city’s refined carving traditions as well as its religious imagination. The hunched posture of the deity, supporting the vessel above him, emphasizes both burden and sacred function: the aged god physically carries the fire.

The provenance traces the object to the Morton Swinsky collection, New York, where it was held from 1960 to 2000. It was also published in “Pre-Columbian Art,” Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, January 7, 1960, lot 328.

The brazier will be offered in a live auction beginning at 9:00 AM MDT on June 11. The sale forms part of ARTEMIS x ARTE’s presentation of Pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial art, bringing together ancient works from across the Americas for collectors of archaeological and early colonial material.