Tsimshian or Haida Frontlet Headdress, Northwest Coast

Morton and Estelle Sosland, Kansas City
Sotheby's, New York, May 20, 2009, lot 76, consigned by the above
Texan Private Collection, acquired after the above auction

Hayward Gallery, London, Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art, October 7, 1976 - January 16, 1977, and travelling: Nelson Gallery of Art-Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, April 4 - June 19, 1977

Ralph T. Coe, Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art, London, 1976, p. 141, cat. no. 297

Excellent condition overall. Very minor marks, nicks, and scratches in places, consistent with age and use. Pierced in places for attachment. Shell inlays appear to be original. Surface wear with old traces of repainting.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Bill Holm writes that "from the farthest northwestern reach of Tlingit country at Yakutat Bay, southward along the coast to the middle of Vancouver Island, dancing chiefs wore crowns as elegant as rich material and sculp­tor's skill could make. Traditions of the tribes assign various places of origin to the dancing head­dress, but, whichever is correct, it must have been somewhere in the north. Some were collected very early in the historic period, one of the most beauti­ful by Malaspina in 1791 (Feder 1977: fig. 4). The features of the headdress are the same wherever it is worn: a cylindrical frame - often made of strips of whale baleen and covered with cloth - from the back of which hangs a long panel covered with rows of white ermine skins; an upstanding circlet of the long, springy whiskers of the Steller's sea lion; and a spectacular plaque carved of hardwood, painted and inlaid with abalone shell on the fore­head. This plaque, or frontlet, is carved to represent a crest or a mythical character. The figure in the center is surrounded by a flange that is usually cov­ered with inset plates of brilliantly iridescent aba­lone shell. Inlays of the same shell flash from the eyes, teeth, and joints. Sumptuous materials sur­round the intricate plaque. Often the crown is cov­ered with a band of swan skin, luxuriant with white down, or ermines flank the frontlet. On Haida and Tlingit headdresses the plaque is often framed by rows of orange and black, spear-shaped tail feathers of the red-shafted flicker, with a band of iridescent green and black mallard head-skin across the forehead.

The dance must have traveled from tribe to tribe with the headdress as its use spread over the coast. The dancer appears with blanket and apron and often a raven rattle (Holm 1972:29 and Holm 1983). Knees slightly bent and legs spread, he jumps on both feet to the time of the song beat - ­short jumps, feet hardly off the floor, making the ermine rows covering his back jump in turn. The blanket was spread by the wearer's arms or elbows. The crown of sea lion whiskers holds a loose fluff of eagle down when the dancing begins. The whis­kers rustle and clatter as the dancer bobs and tosses his head, shaking white whisps of down through the whisker barrier to swirl around his dancing fig­ure. The white down means peace, or welcome, to the guests at a potlatch. Chiefs dance to greet canoes invited from far villages. Canoe-borne visi­tors dance in turn, and the swirling down from their headdresses drifts shoreward on the wind and over the host and his tribe on the beach. Among the Kwakiutl and their relatives, the dance is a preliminary to the appearance of a figure masked as a crest of the headdress dancer, who, possessed, runs from the house. In its rich composite of material, form, and movement, no Northwest Coast object expresses the ideas of rank and heredity, super­natural power, drama, and aesthetics so well as the dancing headdress." (Holm, The Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art, Seattle, 1983, p. 19).