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Round-rimmed frontlets appear more often among the northern British Columbia mainland groups than elsewhere, and wonderful, old examples can be seen from the Coast Tsimshian, Haisla, Nuxalk, and Heiltsuk-speaking areas. The face and eyesocket structures of this frontlet exhibit characteristics of the Heiltsuk and Nuxalk-influenced traditions, as described in reference to works from those areas (fig.T164). The iconography shows connections to northern mythology, that of the Bear Mother (Haida), or Kaats (Tlingit) stories describing unions between bears and humans that produced offspring of combined heritage. The large central image features a blunt snout and raised paws indicative of the bear portrayal, and the small face above the bear has humanoid characteristics joined with short, rounded ears, suggestive of bear parentage. This little figure has been carved and fitted into a slot in the frontlet rim that holds it in place, and may not have been made by the same carver as the rest of the object. The more angular treatment of the eyesockets and cheeks, the more naturalistic handling of the humanoid nose, and the heavier, broader lips imply that this face may have been made by a different artist in a more northern Heiltsuk village, and perhaps earlier in time. Varying color-layers of green, black, and Reckett's Blue paint on the bear's snout suggest occasions when the image may have been reconfigured as well as repainted. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceGeorge G. Heye, collected in 1922, Cape Mudge, Quadra Island, British Columbia.; Museum of the American Indian (11/5211), Heye Foundation, New York City, 1922; Robert Huber in 1970; George Terasaki, New York City
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.328.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 345.
Culture
Heiltsuk (Bella Bella)
Headdress Frontlet
Date1870-1900
DimensionsOverall: 7 3/4 × 6 1/2 × 4 in. (19.7 × 16.5 × 10.2 cm)
Object numberT0165
Credit LineLoan from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextNative tradition places the source of the Peace Headdress, which incorporates ermine pelts, sea lion whiskers, and carved wooden frontlet headdress in the area of the Nass River (Swanton 1909, pp. 170-173). From there its form and accompanying dance tradition spread to the Tlingit, Haida and, of course, other peoples of the northern British Columbia mainland, the Haisla and Heiltsuk-speaking peoples. By the mid 19th century, the headdress and carved frontlet had been adopted as far south as the Kwakwaka'wakw) and Nuu-chah-nulth of Vancouver Island. The earliest frontlets display no inlays or very spare use of the valuable, imported abalone shell (the haliotis fulgens of California and Mexico) brought northward by extensive Native trade. As the trade in shells increased, a more elaborate use of shell proliferated. The sculptural style of this heavily-inlaid frontlet suggests that its maker was of the Heiltsuk or possibly Wuikinuxv peoples. The fact that it was collected from the Cape Mudge Kwakwaka`wakw is indicative of the distance that individual objects and traditions travel through intermarriage, gifting, or even warfare.Round-rimmed frontlets appear more often among the northern British Columbia mainland groups than elsewhere, and wonderful, old examples can be seen from the Coast Tsimshian, Haisla, Nuxalk, and Heiltsuk-speaking areas. The face and eyesocket structures of this frontlet exhibit characteristics of the Heiltsuk and Nuxalk-influenced traditions, as described in reference to works from those areas (fig.T164). The iconography shows connections to northern mythology, that of the Bear Mother (Haida), or Kaats (Tlingit) stories describing unions between bears and humans that produced offspring of combined heritage. The large central image features a blunt snout and raised paws indicative of the bear portrayal, and the small face above the bear has humanoid characteristics joined with short, rounded ears, suggestive of bear parentage. This little figure has been carved and fitted into a slot in the frontlet rim that holds it in place, and may not have been made by the same carver as the rest of the object. The more angular treatment of the eyesockets and cheeks, the more naturalistic handling of the humanoid nose, and the heavier, broader lips imply that this face may have been made by a different artist in a more northern Heiltsuk village, and perhaps earlier in time. Varying color-layers of green, black, and Reckett's Blue paint on the bear's snout suggest occasions when the image may have been reconfigured as well as repainted. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceGeorge G. Heye, collected in 1922, Cape Mudge, Quadra Island, British Columbia.; Museum of the American Indian (11/5211), Heye Foundation, New York City, 1922; Robert Huber in 1970; George Terasaki, New York City
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.328.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 345.
On View
Not on view1400-1500
