Copper shields engraved with crest designs were considered to be objects of wealth and great prestige all along the Northwest Coast. It may be that the Tlingit were the inventors of the idea; certainly they were highly skilled at producing a variety of objects in the material. “Coppers” as they are usually called were often exchanged or distributed at potlatch ceremonies or wedding feasts. Coppers have a very distinctive flared shape; it is thought that their often bulging tops may represent the heads of ancestors, while the T-formation below might symbolize their backbones or skeletons. Miniature Coppers were sometimes sewn onto dance aprons, and the Copper shape was occasionally used for other objects.

There are other examples of Northwest Coast rattles made of copper, including fewer than ten in the actual shape of Coppers that we could locate. Most of the examples are attributed to either the Tlingit or the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw (see references). This rattle is thus not only a beautiful object – we can see why it would have appealed to Andy Warhol’s sensibilities and eclectic taste – it is also quite a rare one. And it remains a bit of an enigma; we don’t know whether it would have been used or given away at a potlatch, or if it might have had some other ceremonial function.

References: Andy Warhol also owned a full-sized Copper, sold at Sotheby’s Auctions, NY, May 21, 1996, Lot 25. For a very similar Tlingit copper rattle with engraving see John Witthoft and Frances Eyman, “Metallurgy of the Tlingit, Dene, and Eskimo” in Expedition (Penn Museum, Spring 1969:12-23), p. 17. For three examples of Kwakwaka’wakw (and Tsimshian) copper rattles (two in the shapes of coppers), and two wooden rattles in the shapes of coppers, see Audrey Hawthorn, Art of the Kwakiutl Indians and Other Northwest Coast Tribes (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967), figs. 35,36. For a similar copper rattle with a wooden handle see Sotheby’s Auctions, NY, June 4, 1997, Lot 290.