Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. We have offered some gorgeous original Native American tomahawk heads in the past, but never before have we had the opportunity to offer a complete unaltered tomahawk like this. This glorious tomahawk retains its original pewter-inlaid shaft, which is beautifully ornamented with pewter shapes. There is a large crack in the shaft traveling its length on one side, so extreme care must be taken when handling this piece. You would be hard-pressed to find one of this caliber in a museum, let alone available anywhere for purchase.

An ingenious combination of smoking pipe and weapon, the pipe tomahawk was used in trade and diplomatic agreements between the white settlers and the Native tribes. Pipe tomahawks were produced by American and European blacksmiths for trade to the Native Americans and these were almost never Native American-made items. A tobacco bowl is attached to the back of the head, which integrates into the length of the shaft, the top of the shaft having a “clean-out plug”, and the mouthpiece of the shaft having a hole to smoke through. It is therefore incredibly difficult to find a pipe tomahawk with its original shaft, as the intricate design of needing a hollow shaft makes them very weak in comparison.

The tomahawk measures roughly 19¾” in length, with the head measuring 8⅛ x 3¼”. The head is still very tight to the shaft due to the pewter-reinforced end, with pewter above & below the head keeping it in place. The length of the shaft is adorned with what appears to be polished German silver inlaid as shapes of rectangles & diamonds, with pewter inlaid as semi-circles around the circumference to reinforce the shaft. The end of the shaft has a pewter mouthpiece which is held in well, but is missing some of the material on the end of the shaft as shown. Of the ten originally inlaid-diamonds, two are missing and another is missing one of its nails and is loose. The crack in the shaft appears to be what caused the loss of the diamonds.

The head of the pipe tomahawk is gorgeously designed and still appears to be in working order, although we would not recommend smoking out of it. The chevrons are still well-defined on the side of the head, with three small symbols on one side, and the head has some moderate oxidation on one side.

Original non-ground dug tomahawk heads are incredibly difficult to find, but to find a complete and unaltered example like this is next to impossible. This is the first we have ever offered and we likely won’t ever see another like it again. Comes ready for further research and display.