Augustus Bean worked in Sitka and, like his brother-in-law Rudolph Walton (1867-1951), produced objects both for sale and for community use. He is best known for heavily inlaid figural feast dishes, though his carving tends to be slimmer, sleeker and more finely drawn than Walton’s.

The attribution of this Devilfish Bowl rests on comparison with a Land Otter Man bowl identified by Erna Gunther as the work of Bean and now in the Alaska State Museum [1]. Both share the same squared ovoids and long, rectangular bone inlays, details that give the surfaces a distinctive, tightly structured character.

Here, two devilfishes face one another across the bowl, their bodies joined into a compact, complex form. Approximately 150 inlays of bone, abalone and seed beads punctuate the dark surface with flashes of white, shell and colour. The mantles are scored with crosshatching and split U forms, while the tentacles are cut directly from the body of the vessel, opening narrow spaces between each curling limb. Bone and bead inlays continue across these passages, so that carving, cutting and ornament seem to press across every available surface.

References: For a discussion of Augustus Bean’s style, see Zachary Jones, “Haa Léelk'w Hás Ji.Eetí, our Grandparents' Art: A Study of Master Tlingit Artists, 1750-1989,” doctoral dissertation, 2018. The Land Otter Man bowl is illustrated on p. 133, fig. 120, Alaska State Museum II-B-1746.

CWS with FA