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On July 2, 2026, Artemis Fine Arts will host its Native American, Ethnographic, and Ancient Art auction live from Louisville, Colorado. Curated by Bob Dodge, the sale features a legally acquired collection of cultural artifacts and antiquities, including Native American, Northwest Coast, Pre-Columbian, Tribal, and Oceanic art. The auction also showcases fine art, fossils, and classical antiquities from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern civilizations, with convenient in-house shipping options available to bidders upon request. In this image: Spratling Sterling Silver & Ebony Handle Letter Opener. Estimate: $900 - $1,350.
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Korean Joseon Blue-Glazed Fish Water Dropper & Vase. East Asia, Korea, Joseon Dynasty, ca. 19th century CE. A charming pair of blue-glazed porcelain vessels from the late Joseon dynasty, comprising a fish-shaped water dropper and a bud vase, both showcasing the technical refinement and symbolic grace of Korean ceramic art. Estimate: $1,400 - $2,100.
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Large Mississippian Pottery Olla - Globular Jar with Short Collar. Native American, Mississippian culture, ca. 1200–1500 CE. A broad, low-shouldered jar swells outward in a near-spherical body before drawing inward to a short, upright collar rim. Built by hand from shell-tempered earthenware and finished with a burnished surface, the vessel carries the smoky grays and ashen blooms of open pit firing, fire-clouding that lends each example its own mottled signature. Estimate: $1,200 - $1,800.
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18th C. Russian Silvered Icon - "The Unexpected Joy". Eastern Europe, Russia, Orthodox Church, ca. 18th to 19th century CE. A compelling Russian Orthodox icon depicting the miracle of "The Unexpected Joy," rendered in egg tempera and gesso on wood with areas of silvered and coppered decoration. The composition presents the well known devotional narrative in which a sinful man kneels in prayer before an icon of the Virgin and Child, only to witness the Christ Child bearing visible wounds. Estimate: $1,300 - $1,950.
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Taino Greenstone Trigonolith Zemi - Three-Pointed Cohoba Stone. Pre-Columbian, Caribbean, Greater Antilles, Taino, ca. 1000–1500 CE. A carved greenstone trigonolith, its three-pointed silhouette rising to a central conical peak flanked by a sloping anterior face and a low posterior projection. The mottled grey-green stone, flecked with russet mineral inclusions, bears the worn incision of a zemi spirit: a brow, eyes, and the suggestion of a snouted countenance pressed into one face. Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500.
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19th C. Chinese Smoking Pipes, Tortoiseshell & Ivory. East Asia, China, Qing Dynasty, ca. 19th to early 20th century CE. A collection of three antique smoking pipes with mottled tortoiseshell veneers and elephant ivory fittings, reflecting the luxury materials favored in late imperial China. Each pipe is formed from a wood or bamboo core, overlaid with thin sheets of heated and molded tortoiseshell that create a warm, variegated surface. Estimate: $900 - $1,350.
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Egyptian Ptolemaic Terracotta Bes Figure - Apotropaic Household Guardian. North Africa, Egypt, Ptolemaic period, ca. 305–30 BCE. A hand-modeled terracotta figure of Bes, the leonine dwarf-god whose grotesque features were thought to repel evil. Rendered in warm reddish-brown clay, the surviving upper body preserves the deity's broad bearded face, mane-like fringe, and stout torso, the modeling vigorous and tactile. Estimate: $800 - $1,200.
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Three Woodland to Mississippian Stone Effigy Head Pipes. A trio of effigy head pipes, each hollowed through the crown to receive a stem and carved with a distinct physiognomic personality: a naturalistic brown stone head from Carroll County, Ohio wearing a banded headdress with drilled bosses, an angular gray stone face framed by incised geometric patterning, and a polished catlinite head whose dramatically enlarged circular eyes and sharp diagonal cheek lines identify the wearer as a masked figure, likely evoking a ceremonial or shamanic persona. Estimate: $800 - $1,200.
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European 18th C. Wooden Barrel Costrel Canteen Vessel. Europe, ca. 18th to 19th century CE. A wooden costrel or canteen formed as a compact barrel-like vessel bound by broad, bent wooden bands around a darker staved body. A round mouth opening is bored through the center of the long side, and small piercings along the edges indicate it was meant to be suspended by a cord or strap for carrying. Estimate: $800 - $1,200.
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Caddo Textured Pottery Bowl - Pinched & Punctate Body. Native American, Caddo, ca. 1200–1500 CE. A hemispherical earthenware bowl built by hand from grog-tempered clay, its exterior worked into a dense field of pinched and punctate texture that ripples in horizontal rows down the rounded body. Small applied nodes and pellets rise from the surface near the rim and base, lending a tactile, almost beaded rhythm to the form. Estimate: $700 - $1,000.