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Dish

Date1840-1860
DimensionsOverall: 4 3/4 × 6 1/2 × 8 3/4 in. (12.1 × 16.5 × 22.2 cm) Plate: 1 3/4 × 3 in. (4.4 × 7.6 cm)
Object numberT0181
Credit LineLoan from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextNorthwest Coast artists were skilled carvers of sheep horn. The resilient horn was first steamed and then molded into shape. The bowl is remarkable for its beautifully observed rendering of a small alert seabird. The bowl’s outer surface is carved in relief with formline designs representing the bird’s wings, feet, and tailfeathers, and there is an additional face on the breast with a projecting hooked nose.
Exhibition History"Treasures from the Thaw Collection," Wheelwright Museum of American Indian Art. Santa Fe, NM, May 1, 2000 - December 31, 2000.

Art of the American Indian: The Thaw Collection, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, March 2, 2010 - May 30, 2010; Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN, October 24, 2010 - January 9, 2011; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, April 24, 2011 - September 23, 2011; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, December 4, 2011 - February 12, 2012.

American Indian Art from the Fenimore Art Museum: The Thaw Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, May 9, 2017 - October 8, 2017.

Extended Loan AAOA (following Met Thaw Travelling Exhibit), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, October 16, 2017 - April 16. 2019.

American Indian Art from the Fenimore Art Museum: The Thaw Collection, Mitchell Gallery, St John's College, Annapolis, MD, February 28, 2020 - April 26, 2020.
ProvenanceAlton L. Dickerman collected in Sitka, Alaska, c. 1883; Miss Foster B. Dickerman, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Mrs. Alice Bemis Taylor, 1928, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Taylor Museum (4974), Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1954
BibliographyDouglas, Frederic H., and Rene d'Harnoncourt. Indian Art of the United States. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1941. Reprinted New York: Arno Press, 1969, (not ill.).

Gunther, Erna. Indians of the Northwest Coast. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1951, (not ill.).

Wardwell, Allen. Yakutat South Indian Art of the Northwest Coast. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1964, p. 57, fig. 130, (not ill.).

Harner, Michael J., and Albert B. Elsasser. Art of the Northwest Coast. Berkeley: University of California, 1965, p. 55.

Duff, Wilson, Bill Holm, and Bill Reid. Art of the Raven. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1967, n.p., cat. no. 282.

Coe, Ralph T. "Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art." Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery of Art, 1977. First published London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1976, p. 156, fig. 381.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Colorado Springs Fine Arts center: A History and Selections from the Permanent Collections. Colorado Springs: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1986, p.124.

Vincent, Gilbert T. Masterpieces of American Indians Art. New York: Harry Abrams, 1995a, p.77.

Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.349.

Fognell, Eva, ed. Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Gallery. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2010, pp. 118-119.

Fognell, Eva. "Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection." American Indian Art Magazine 36, no. 4 (Autumn 2011): 76-85, p. 78, fig. 4.

Murdock, Michell, ed. 50 at 20: Masterpieces of American Indian Art from the Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2015, p. 29.

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. 380.
On View
Not on view
Spoon
Haida
c. 1870
Bowl
Haida
1830-1860
Dagger
Tlingit
c. 1880
Bowl
Tlingit
1780-1820
After the Battle
Henry R. DiSpirito
1947
Bull's Head
Unidentified Artist
17th Century
Bowl
Coast Tsimshian (or Haisla?)
1860-1880
Bent-Corner Dish
Haida
1830-1860
Powderhorn
Tlingit
c. 1780-1800
Spoon
Yanktonai Sioux
c. 1870
Bowl
Wishxam or Wasco
1800-1850
Hat
Isabel Rorick
1997

5798 STATE HIGHWAY 80
COOPERSTOWN NY, 13326
607-547-1400

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