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On the flat back of the comb, relief-carved formline designs cover the surface, seemingly not iconographically related to the images on the front of the piece. An early style, the ovoid shapes are very rounded, the U-forms mostly square. Prominent in the lower half of the design are four inner ovoids whose profile head and beak formations suggest an eagle or similar raptor. In the Tlingit moiety tradition, Thunderbird and killer whale are clan emblems of the eagle moiety.
The comb was collected by Edward G. Fast while he was in Sitka, Alaska with the US Army, beginning at the time of the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States in October, 1867, and continuing through 1868. He recorded that the comb came from the "Kaloshian" people south of Mt. Saint Elias along the coast (Peabody Museum archives). Documented objects like this assist immensely in sorting out the approximate dates of similar objects with no recorded history. In particular, the facial structures and certain sculptural nuances of this comb seem to relate directly to a headdress frontlet in the collection of the Alaska State Museum, Juneau (c.f. Brown 1987, p.172), also representing Thunderbird and whale. The carving of this frontlet encompasses more volume with greater detail and depth of relief than is seen in the comb, but the specific handling of the thunderbird's face and ear characteristics, as well as sculptural details of the whale figures, denote that they were conceived and carved by the same artist. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceEdward G. Fast, Cambridge, Massachusetts, collected in Sitka, Alaska, 1867-1868; Peabody Museum, Harvard College (1771), purchased in 1869; exchanged with Stuart C. Welsh, Jr., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1953; George Terasaki, New York City
BibliographyFast, Edward G. Catalogue of Alaskan Antiquities & Curiosities, now on Exhibition at the Clinton Hall Art Galleries. New York: Leavitt, Strebeigh & Co., 1869, p. 24, cat. no. 284.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.284.
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. 427.
Culture
Tlingit
Comb
Date1830-1850
MediumYew
DimensionsOverall: 6 × 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (15.2 × 7 × 3.8 cm)
Object numberT0196
Credit LineLoan from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextResembling the central sculptured wood portion of a Tlingit Shakiaat (ermine-pelt headdress), this smaller-scaled comb is a very compact example of an intertwined combination of multiple images. At the base of the carving is the face of a whale, depicted as a flared-nostril, wide mouthed mammal. Pectoral fins extend up the sides of the design, defined by formline ovoid and U-shapes. The dorsal fin protrudes out and up from between the eyebrows and pectoral fins, enclosing a human face profiled on either side. The tradition of the southern coastal Nuu-chah-nulth and Makah whale-ritualists relates that the seat of the whale's spirit is in the spinal area beneath the dorsal fin. This may be related to the way faces are often represented in the dorsal fins of northern style whales. Above the dorsal, an image that is both the tail of the whale and the face of a thunderbird finishes off the arrangement, its recurved beak turning back within its humanoid lips. The abbreviated flukes of the whale's tail double as the Thunderbird's ears. The formlines of the whale's pectoral fins may concurrently be seen as the Thunderbird's wings.On the flat back of the comb, relief-carved formline designs cover the surface, seemingly not iconographically related to the images on the front of the piece. An early style, the ovoid shapes are very rounded, the U-forms mostly square. Prominent in the lower half of the design are four inner ovoids whose profile head and beak formations suggest an eagle or similar raptor. In the Tlingit moiety tradition, Thunderbird and killer whale are clan emblems of the eagle moiety.
The comb was collected by Edward G. Fast while he was in Sitka, Alaska with the US Army, beginning at the time of the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States in October, 1867, and continuing through 1868. He recorded that the comb came from the "Kaloshian" people south of Mt. Saint Elias along the coast (Peabody Museum archives). Documented objects like this assist immensely in sorting out the approximate dates of similar objects with no recorded history. In particular, the facial structures and certain sculptural nuances of this comb seem to relate directly to a headdress frontlet in the collection of the Alaska State Museum, Juneau (c.f. Brown 1987, p.172), also representing Thunderbird and whale. The carving of this frontlet encompasses more volume with greater detail and depth of relief than is seen in the comb, but the specific handling of the thunderbird's face and ear characteristics, as well as sculptural details of the whale figures, denote that they were conceived and carved by the same artist. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceEdward G. Fast, Cambridge, Massachusetts, collected in Sitka, Alaska, 1867-1868; Peabody Museum, Harvard College (1771), purchased in 1869; exchanged with Stuart C. Welsh, Jr., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1953; George Terasaki, New York City
BibliographyFast, Edward G. Catalogue of Alaskan Antiquities & Curiosities, now on Exhibition at the Clinton Hall Art Galleries. New York: Leavitt, Strebeigh & Co., 1869, p. 24, cat. no. 284.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.284.
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. 427.
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