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Lot Essay
An army officer, Charles Lennox, Fourth Duke of Lennox and Fourth Duke of Richmond, was appointed governor-in-chief of British North-America in 1818, arriving in Quebec in July. He undertook an extensive tour of Upper and Lower Canada in the summer of 1819, but died of hydrophobia on 20 August near Richmond, Upper Canada, and was buried in the cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Quebec on 4 September.
‘The pipe axe in all its forms is the one outstanding weapon born of European parentage that has no known prototype in Europe proper and it may truly be termed a distinctive American production. It is not known when the first pipe axe was introduced among the tribesmen of the eastern woodland area, but it must have been sometime around the turn of the 18th century. A broad-bladed almost full sized felling axe with a pipe bowl inserted in the poll is pictured in the portraits of the “Four Kings of Canada”, drawn by Simon P. Verelst during the visit of the four Iroquois chieftains to London 1709-1710. … The unknown genius who first thought of combining the axe and pipe into one unit, as a weapon symbolizing both peace and war, has died unhonored and unsung. … In addition to the ordinary service axes made primarily for fighting purposes there came into use during the 18th and early 19th century a type of weapon known as the presentation tomahawk. These were the pipe axes made by skilled craftsmen in England to be presented to leading warriors allied to the British cause. With these axes were frequently presented official silver medals, sets of wrist and arm bands and gorgets. … Frequently the blade, and most assuredly the stem, (which was of some fine highly polished hard wood) were lavishly decorated with silver inlay. The latter took the form of stars, crescents, lozenges, birds, and floral patterns. … The figures that appear most frequently are the trefoil or cross, the star and the human heart … These same patterns, piercing the blade and inlaid in the steel are to be seen upon the blades of hand striking weapons and pole arms of Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. The emblems themselves are older than that. The heart design, either plain or twisted is quite commonly seen inlaid in copper, brass or silver … This is an ancient Christian religious symbol and denotes the Fifth Wound of Christ.’ (A. Woodward, Denominators of the Fur Trade. An Anthology of Writings on the Material Culture of the Fur Trade, Pasadena, 1970, pp.45-56)
‘The pipe axe in all its forms is the one outstanding weapon born of European parentage that has no known prototype in Europe proper and it may truly be termed a distinctive American production. It is not known when the first pipe axe was introduced among the tribesmen of the eastern woodland area, but it must have been sometime around the turn of the 18th century. A broad-bladed almost full sized felling axe with a pipe bowl inserted in the poll is pictured in the portraits of the “Four Kings of Canada”, drawn by Simon P. Verelst during the visit of the four Iroquois chieftains to London 1709-1710. … The unknown genius who first thought of combining the axe and pipe into one unit, as a weapon symbolizing both peace and war, has died unhonored and unsung. … In addition to the ordinary service axes made primarily for fighting purposes there came into use during the 18th and early 19th century a type of weapon known as the presentation tomahawk. These were the pipe axes made by skilled craftsmen in England to be presented to leading warriors allied to the British cause. With these axes were frequently presented official silver medals, sets of wrist and arm bands and gorgets. … Frequently the blade, and most assuredly the stem, (which was of some fine highly polished hard wood) were lavishly decorated with silver inlay. The latter took the form of stars, crescents, lozenges, birds, and floral patterns. … The figures that appear most frequently are the trefoil or cross, the star and the human heart … These same patterns, piercing the blade and inlaid in the steel are to be seen upon the blades of hand striking weapons and pole arms of Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. The emblems themselves are older than that. The heart design, either plain or twisted is quite commonly seen inlaid in copper, brass or silver … This is an ancient Christian religious symbol and denotes the Fifth Wound of Christ.’ (A. Woodward, Denominators of the Fur Trade. An Anthology of Writings on the Material Culture of the Fur Trade, Pasadena, 1970, pp.45-56)