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Oystercatcher Rattle
Oystercatcher Rattle
Culture

Oystercatcher Rattle

Datec. 1830-1860
DimensionsOverall: 5 1/2 × 4 1/2 × 13 1/4 in. (14 × 11.4 × 33.7 cm)
Object numberT0768
Credit LineLoan from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextShaman’s used such rattles in company with singing and other rituals efforts to cure illness or spiritual possession. While the basic overall forms of such rattles are similar, their backs, displaying shamanic themes, display a diverse style and imagery. Here, the raven and frog combination seen on many Northwest Coast rattles has been altered, the frog supporting a bound witch that the raven is torturing by twisting his hair to extract a confession. Such dramatic shamanic imagery added to the intensity and power of the shaman’s rituals.
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.

"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," Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY, October 13, 2018 - December 31, 2018.
ProvenanceF.R. Mitchell, purchased at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893; George Terasaki, New York City; private collection
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. 140, fig. 114.

Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.370.

Fognell, Eva, ed. Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2010, p. 135.

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. 420.
On View
Not on view
Rattle
Tsimshian
1840-1860
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1850-1880
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1850-1870
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c. 1870
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1800-1830
Model Totem Pole
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1860-1880
Amulet
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Proto-Frontlet
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Mask
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1820-1850
Soul Catcher
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1840-1870

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

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