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The formation of the beaver's head is of a sculptural style from northern British Columbia, which can be seen in very old and much more recent sculptural work without significant alterations. The vessel illustrates a northern-coast convention of carving a traditional dish form with animal parts conceptually appended to it, as opposed to a southern-coast convention of carving an animals or bird form and hollowing out the body to make a bowl. The beaver's head and tail could not be much more separate from the dish form than they are here. The high-ended and low-sided bowl has been undercut on the inner and outer edges, giving a very rounded, bulging shape to the body. This vessel will hold more oil than the size of its open top might imply, and the profile of the sculpture successfully conveys the image of a gracefully swimming beaver. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceAlexander Grant Dallas, Hudson's Bay Company Administrator, Fort Victoria, 1857-1861; Museum of Native American Culture, Spokane, Washington; Jerrie and Anne Vander Houwen, Yakima, Washington; Shaw Gallery, Aspen, Colorado
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.354, 355.
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. 390.
Culture
Coast Tsimshian
Bowl
Datec. 1800
MediumAlder or birch, pigment
DimensionsOverall: 2 1/4 × 4 1/4 × 7 1/4 in. (5.7 × 10.8 × 18.4 cm)
Object numberT0168
Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextMany decades are required for an oil dish to take on the kind of deep dark oxidation color of this vessel, suggesting that the bowl could have been very old when it was acquired by Alexander Dallas during his service with the Hudson's Bay Company. Alder is a pale, white wood when freshly carved, and continued saturation with eulachon or seal oils oxidizes and warms the surface color to a golden-honey tone that steadily darkens over time. The saturation of oil over time, the oxidation that darkens, the handling that polishes, all requires generations to reach the level of patina on this bowl. This suggests that many objects in museums, most of which have been dated by collection information to the second half of the 19th century, are likely to be much older than has been commonly supposed. The formation of the beaver's head is of a sculptural style from northern British Columbia, which can be seen in very old and much more recent sculptural work without significant alterations. The vessel illustrates a northern-coast convention of carving a traditional dish form with animal parts conceptually appended to it, as opposed to a southern-coast convention of carving an animals or bird form and hollowing out the body to make a bowl. The beaver's head and tail could not be much more separate from the dish form than they are here. The high-ended and low-sided bowl has been undercut on the inner and outer edges, giving a very rounded, bulging shape to the body. This vessel will hold more oil than the size of its open top might imply, and the profile of the sculpture successfully conveys the image of a gracefully swimming beaver. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceAlexander Grant Dallas, Hudson's Bay Company Administrator, Fort Victoria, 1857-1861; Museum of Native American Culture, Spokane, Washington; Jerrie and Anne Vander Houwen, Yakima, Washington; Shaw Gallery, Aspen, Colorado
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.354, 355.
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. 390.
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