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Both objects reveal the work of a master designer and carver, who balanced forms and spaces so efficiently that each of these complex, three-color painted images appears to be in a perfect equilibrium between movement and stillness, power and calm. Examination of many subtle details of each design serves to underscore their common heritage: not only made by the same hands, but probably also about the same time. Each smoothly-integrated formline design is completely different in overall pattern, but each U-shape, ovoid, nose, tongue, and eye shape match so closely in form and style that it's almost as if the two chests were made back to back. Even the specific red, black, and blue-green paint colors appear to be the same hues, fairly unusual in a medium where natural variation is the norm.
The Thaw collection chest, like the Klukwan example, is composed of traditionally structured, ambiguous designs that a singular identity of the image is not apparent. This aspect of northern chest designs may have been intentional, so that their movements through trade and gifting would not be limited by the lines of ownership of specific crest emblems. The back of the Thaw collection chest (the side without the face and hands) displays, however, some distinctly whale-like characteristics: what could be an ovoid blowhole between the eye sockets, pectoral fins (in red) on either side of the central body design, and a fluke-like character to the ovoid constructions in the lower corners. This may be in response to iconographic requests from the original owner. The chest also shows some unusual repairs at the tops of three of the bent corners: Split eagle quills have been sewn in place where the corners may have fractured during bending, reinforcements which seem to be more spiritual than structural in nature. The physical strength of the quills would be in their long axis, not crosswise, but here perhaps the eagle's spirit is being called on to provide more far-reaching protection. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
Exhibition History"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.
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 (5182), Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1954
BibliographyPerriot, Francoise, and Slim Batteux, trans. Arts des Indiens d'Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d'Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris, somogy edition d'Art, 1999, p. 121, fig. 96.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.343.
Wright, Robin. Northern Haida Master Carvers. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001, p.138, pp.140-141, fig.3.27 (T catalogue number printed in caption T189a, T189b is incorrect)
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. 368.
Culture
Haida
Bent-Corner Chest
Date1830-1860
MediumYellow cedar, red cedar, black, red, blue paint, red turban snail opercula shells, eagle quills
DimensionsOverall: 18 × 18 × 31 in. (45.7 × 45.7 × 78.7 cm)
Object numberT0184a-b
Credit LineLoan from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextHighly esteemed objects like decorated bowls, boxes, and carved chests are known to have moved great distances between coastal First Nations as documented by examples such as this and at least one of its relatives. Without the details of its story to inform us, only its appearance reveals that it was made in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). Acquired by Alton L. Dickerman in the Baranov Island town of Sitka, Alaska, about 1883, the chest would have traveled over two hundred and fifty miles between there and its origin, to have arrived some unknown number of months, or years, or decades before its, acquisition. The similarity of its design style to other chests known to have been Haida-made is best established by comparison to a particular chest also collected from Tlingit owners (c.f. Holm 1987, p.148, fig. 58). That heirloom container of Tlingit clan treasures belonged to the Gaanaxteidi clan Whale House, of Klukwan, Alaska. It was photographed in the original Whale House by Juneau photographers Lloyd Winter and Percy Pond in 1895, as well as others. The house master, named Coudahwot (G.T. Emmons' spelling), informed Lt. Emmons on the occasion of the sale of the chest (before 1905) that it had been acquired by the Gaanaxteidi in trade from the Haida of Haida Gwaii (over four hundred miles to the south). Close analysis of the two-dimensional decoration on the Klukwan chest discloses a direct relationship to the painting and relief-carving of the chest illustrated here from the Thaw collection, originally purchased in Sitka some twenty years prior to Emmon's acquisition.Both objects reveal the work of a master designer and carver, who balanced forms and spaces so efficiently that each of these complex, three-color painted images appears to be in a perfect equilibrium between movement and stillness, power and calm. Examination of many subtle details of each design serves to underscore their common heritage: not only made by the same hands, but probably also about the same time. Each smoothly-integrated formline design is completely different in overall pattern, but each U-shape, ovoid, nose, tongue, and eye shape match so closely in form and style that it's almost as if the two chests were made back to back. Even the specific red, black, and blue-green paint colors appear to be the same hues, fairly unusual in a medium where natural variation is the norm.
The Thaw collection chest, like the Klukwan example, is composed of traditionally structured, ambiguous designs that a singular identity of the image is not apparent. This aspect of northern chest designs may have been intentional, so that their movements through trade and gifting would not be limited by the lines of ownership of specific crest emblems. The back of the Thaw collection chest (the side without the face and hands) displays, however, some distinctly whale-like characteristics: what could be an ovoid blowhole between the eye sockets, pectoral fins (in red) on either side of the central body design, and a fluke-like character to the ovoid constructions in the lower corners. This may be in response to iconographic requests from the original owner. The chest also shows some unusual repairs at the tops of three of the bent corners: Split eagle quills have been sewn in place where the corners may have fractured during bending, reinforcements which seem to be more spiritual than structural in nature. The physical strength of the quills would be in their long axis, not crosswise, but here perhaps the eagle's spirit is being called on to provide more far-reaching protection. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
Exhibition History"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.
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 (5182), Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1954
BibliographyPerriot, Francoise, and Slim Batteux, trans. Arts des Indiens d'Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d'Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris, somogy edition d'Art, 1999, p. 121, fig. 96.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.343.
Wright, Robin. Northern Haida Master Carvers. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001, p.138, pp.140-141, fig.3.27 (T catalogue number printed in caption T189a, T189b is incorrect)
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. 368.
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