ESKIMO PANEL

Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland

Cowan's, Cincinnati, March 31, 2007, lot 12, consigned by the above

Richard Pohrt, Jr., Ann Arbor

John Molloy, New York

George Terasaki, New York, acquired from the above

This charming two-sided panel is the work of a virtuoso Arctic carver, exploiting the natural beauty of the finest sculptural medium available to him: the tusk of a walrus. While its function and specific iconography are unknown, the rhythmic composition features on one side a line of varying human figures, two confronted canines, and two unidentified dome shaped elements divided by horizontal bands; and on the other a parallel line of seals or sea lions. The relief carving follows a natural curve of the tusk, and the repetitive elements could suggest a numerical meaning, perhaps a count of persons or quarry of a hunt; or in the case of the humans may depict an ancestral lineage. In any case the patient sculptor has cleverly introduced small variations in the repeated forms, with the animals facing in different directions and the humans taking on varied poses, and the two canines (perhaps humorously) appearing to stand and dance.