This is an exceedingly rare and early authentic Spontoon War Tomahawk from the Crow Indians in Colorado and dating to early-to-mid-19th Century. The head is a very early, larger pattern which was first documented by Meriwether Lewis & William Clark on their 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition up the Missouri River basin. Lewis and Clark as per their journals found this pattern of spontoon tomahawk among the Mandan Indians and Lewis sketched an image example of one in the journal referring to it as the ”older fassion”, as shown in the photo gallery. The piece exhibits an iron hand-forged spontoon tomahawk with very large, kite-shaped head having several pierced holes in the blade. The huge blade is wrought iron hand-forged from sheet iron, bent around to form the round eye / eyelet hole and forged back together. The blade shows two upward curled basal processes that appear to have been cut from the body of the blade. The center shows five round pierced holes in a distinct pattern and is stamped on one side with a maker’s mark “L”. Other early examples of spontoon heads with upward basal curled processes and simple, pierced hole decorations with nearly identical pattern have been documented by tomahawk authors and scholars Harold L. Peterson, John Baldwin, and Hartzler & Knowles. Of the documented examples in nearly exact pattern, several are shown for comparison in the photo gallery, many bear the “L” stamped makers mark into the blade; some surmise that the “L” mark was the stamp of Meriwether Lewis’s expedition blacksmith, Lewis wrote in his journal that the only thing that kept the expedition members from starving to death in one particular winter was the ability to trade grains and dried corn with local Indians in exchange for the expedition blacksmith forging many of these heads from the thin sheet iron. Similar, large authentic early spontoon heads are shown in the photo gallery for comparison: from the Harold L. Peterson 1965 book “American Indian Tomahawk” figure 52 and 53 from the Donald Baird and Smithsonian Institution collections with the first also being stamped with the capitol “L” in the same area as our example; and from the Mark Francis book “Rare American Indian Weapons Volume 1” 2019 page 40 a 13-inch-long early example from a private collection photograph by Phil Schurmeister at the Las Vegas Antique Weapons Show with the stamped “L” on the blade also in the same area; lastly a historic painting of a Crow Indian holding a large spontoon tomahawk with same pattern with very similar pierced hole pattern. The example being offered in this sale is a rare and early circa 1830-1850 pre-Indian Wars period and features a 12 ½ inch long head, hand-forged iron head with upward curled basal processes, kite-shaped blade and five pierced “bleeder” holes in the blade, along with the large capitol “L” stamped into the back of the blade. The old dark walnut hard wood haft handle has a nice, deep shiny patina and has many nicks, scratches and dings from honest age and use. The haft shows several bands of brass trade tacks with nice mellow patina and a long buckskin fringe wrap drop that hangs down 24 inches additionally. The gripping area has a wrap of old Indian tanned hide that is flaking off from honest age. This is truly an attractive, historic well documented pattern being a foreboding large weapon for warrior use. Provenance: From the ex-collection of the important and historic DuPont family of St. Louis, MO and the Cyrus Eaton collection in London, England. Total length of the tomahawk without the drop is 24 ½ inches long and the drop is an additional 24 inches long; the head is 12 ½ inches long and 4 ½ inches across the basal processes.