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Artworks
UNIDENTIFIED YUP’IK ARTIST, PROBABLY LOWER YUKON, ALASKA
Walrus Effigy Snuff Box, late 19th centurywood, ivory, and paint, 3 x 6 x 2.5 in (7.6 x 15.2 x 6.3 cm)
unsigned.
LOT 3
ESTIMATE: $3,500 — $5,000
PRICE REALIZED: $3,840.00Further images
Tobacco use was quite common in southwest Alaska after about 1820, and the production of tobacco and snuff boxes was in full swing by mid-century. They became part of a...Tobacco use was quite common in southwest Alaska after about 1820, and the production of tobacco and snuff boxes was in full swing by mid-century. They became part of a flourishing tradition of decorated and sculptural box making in the region. Dorothy Jean Ray writes about this in her book Aleut and Eskimo Art, “The apex of wooden boxes as sculpture was reached in southwest Alaska during the nineteenth century. In no other area was there such exquisite workmanship and variety of forms and ornamentation. Some of the boxes were, in themselves, fine pieces of sculpture; some were foundations for the figure painter, and others, models of ingenious inlay techniques” [1]. This box in the form of a basking walrus, with its tight-fitting lid, stylized flippers, ivory studs, and painted designs is an outstanding example of its type.
1. Dorothy Jean Ray, Aleut and Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in South Alaska, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981), p. 31.
References: For similarly styles snuff boxes see William W. Fitzhugh and Susan A. Kaplan, Inua: spirit world of the Bering Sea Eskimo, (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982), fig. 200; see ibid., figs. 217-218 for related box forms. See also Dorothy Jean Ray, Aleut and Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in South Alaska, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981), p. 191-194.
Provenance
Private Collection, USA;
Bonham’s Auctions, San Francisco, December 2011, Lot 4111;
Private Collection, British Columbia.
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