Unidentified Haida or Tshimshian Artist

Stalked for meat, skin, and most of all, the rich sustaining blubber from which oil may be derived, the seal furnishes much of the basic sustenance required for survival in northern climates. It is the all important oil from the seal, which seal form bowls were created to hold. It is the bounty of the harvest which the seal makes possible that dictates the form of the bowl, in which so often the artist, as here, has emphasized the full, swollen belly of the animal. As in other bowls of this type, the lobes of the seal’s tail appear pinched together, a posture taken when the creatures are land-bound, the time when they are most often hunted.

The present example was most likely carved by a Haida or Tshimshian artist in the late 18th or early 19th century. The bowl exhibits an exceptional clarity of form, and richness of colour. The once lightly toned wood appears lustrous and dark, with a thick sticky patina on the interior resulting from exuding oil that has saturated the wood.

Acquired circa 1900 during the travels of Washington resident Olive Berthusen (b. 1881), or earlier by her father, a Washington sailor named Jack Stone. The bowl was willed to the city of Lynden, Washington upon Berthusen’s passing in 1937, displayed at the Lynden Library, and later Lynden Pioneer Museum before being deaccessioned in 2009.[1]

[1] Troy Luginbill, “The Berthusen Collection from the Lynden Pioneer Museum, Lynden Washington”, Bonhams Native American Art Auction, December 14 2009 (San Francisco: Bonhams, 2009) unpaged.