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    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST, Walking Stick, c. 1870
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST, Walking Stick, c. 1870
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST, Walking Stick, c. 1870
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST, Walking Stick, c. 1870
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST, Walking Stick, c. 1870
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST, Walking Stick, c. 1870

    UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST

    Walking Stick, c. 1870
    wood, 30 x 3.25 x 1 in (76.2 x 8.3 x 2.5 cm), measurements reflect dimensions without custom made metal stand.

    LOT 50
    ESTIMATE: $12,000 — $18,000
    PRICE REALIZED: $12,000.00

    Further images

    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 6 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • Walking Stick
    This is an elegant, practical object that must have once belonged to an elder of the wolf moiety. One of the most difficult aspects of making this cane would have...
    Read more

    This is an elegant, practical object that must have once belonged to an elder of the wolf moiety. One of the most difficult aspects of making this cane would have been finding the right young tree or branch that included the less than ninety-degree angle at the intersection of the carved handle and the vertical shaft. It would have been a light, strong assistant to lean on when necessary. The carving appears to represent a wolf; long snout, low nostrils, laid-back ears. It has captured a human figure in its jaws, with only the victim’s head and arms visible outside the mouth. Both the man’s face and the wolf’s eyes suggest the Tlingit style of sculpture. The little nubs on the back of the wolf’s head appear to have been knots in the wood, retained for the tactile enjoyment of the user.


    Steven C. Brown


    References: For a somewhat similar Haida example see Karen Duffek, Bill McLennan and Jordan Wilson, Where the Power Is: Indigenous Perspectives on Northwest Coast Art, (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing / Museum of Anthropology at UBC, 2021), pp. 304-5. There are somewhat similar compositions on two Tlingit amulets of bear and sea bear, respectively, devouring a man, reproduced in Allen Wardwell, Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and its Art, (New York: The Monacelli Press, 1996), nos. 15 & 16, p. 20. Such imagery, Wardell suggests, is associated with shamanic art and “has obvious reference to death, rebirth, and transformation.”
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    Provenance

    A New York Collection.
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The main office of First Arts Premiers Inc. is located on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat, the original owners and custodians of this land.  Today, it is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

 

 

 

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