NUU-CHAH-NULTH CHEST

Trotta-Bono, Shrub Oak

George Terasaki, New York, acquired from the above

Steven C. Brown, Transfigurations: North Pacific Coast Art. George Terasaki, Collector, Seattle, 2006, n.p., pl. 55

The finely grooved texturing on this large chest is an ancient style of surface decoration that was once widespread over the entire Northwest Coast. The earliest archaeological evidence indicates that this type of surface treatment predates or is at least contemporary with the first kinds of incised design work that were applied to such containers. The Ozette village archaeological project recovered a large chest front that had been inundated by a mudslide 300-500 years ago. It features incised details such as eyes, ears, a mouth, and trigon shapes illustrating a large face with a center design field and a border pattern down each side. Between the incised areas and covering the entire surface of the panel is a pattern of fine parallel grooves running from top to bottom, much the same as is seen here. These are the remnants of the knife or chisel work that smoothed the split surfaces of the original plank. These final strokes were applied with great care, producing a highly refined surface.

Many square boxes with this style of surface treatment have been preserved from the Nuu-chah-nulth culture area, but there are comparatively few surviving examples of rectangular chests. The original redcedar surface of this chest was relatively pale, but has mellowed over many generations to a dark, smoky color with polished highlights. Five parallel grooves encompass the upper and lower edges of the chest, and a narrow border with diagonal grooving is adjacent to each corner. Each long side of the thinly carved lid features a raised edge. These are separate pieces that have been sewn or pegged in place. In the first European drawings made of a Nuu-chah-nulth house interior, the renderings of Chief Maquinna’s house at Yuquot drawn by John Webber and the Spanish artist Vasques, one can readily see large storage chests like this one stacked on the wooden platforms lining the perimeter of the house. They do not appear to be painted, but the drawings lack sufficient detail to tell whether they have been surface-grooved or not.

Certain early northern-coast carved and bent-corner bowls display a vestigial form of this surface texture in combination with formline design work. They feature a borderlike band of vertical grooving just below the rim of the vessel, the width of which varies by example from one to three inches or more. One style of bent-corner bowl from the Kwakwaka'wakw usually shows this style of treatment over the whole surface. At on time in the distant past, perhaps all Northwest Coast containers were treated in this way.

Steven C. Brown