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Rattle

Datec. 1800-1860
DimensionsOverall: 4 × 4 1/8 × 12 3/4 in. (10.2 × 10.5 × 32.4 cm)
Object numberT0769
Credit LineLoan from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextThe Nootka and the Makah have multi-day ceremonies initiating young people into their Wolf societies. Initiates are removed from the village and taught important cultural traditions. In dances performed during the ceremony, rattles such as this depicting a grouse accompany song and dance performances. The smooth, round body of the rattle provides a large resonating cavity, and it may once have held small stones from a grouse’s gizzard as its sounding mechanism. The grouse’s plump body and extended neck and top-feathers are masterfully rendered with the greatest simplicity. The rich patina of its surface indicates great age and long use.
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.

"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.
ProvenanceGeorge Terasaki, New York City; private collection, New York City
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. 114, fig. 89.

Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.324.

Brown, Steven C. Transfigurations: North Pacific Coast Art George Terasaki Collector. Seattle: Marquand Books, 2006, plate 82.

Fognell, Eva, ed. Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2010, p. 139.

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. 337.
On View
Not on view
Dance Fans
Central Yup'ik
c. 1870
Dance Fans
Central Yup'ik
c. 1870
Blouse
Lenape (Delaware)
c. 1900
Native American Basket Seller
Cornelius David Krieghoff
1815-1872
Jar
1920-1930
Bag
Seneca (Haudenosaunee)
c. 1840-1860
Bag
Seneca (Haudenosaunee)
c. 1840-1860
Okvik Figure
Okvik - Old Bering Sea Culture I (Siberian Yup'ik)
200 BC-100 AD
Peacock
Unidentified Artist
c. 1850
Frontlet
Tsimshian
1825-1850
Ladle
Wishxam or Wasco
1800-1850
Warrior Dreamer
Peter Jones

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

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