- 128
Cup'ik Food Bowl, Southern Alaska
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- wood
- Diameter: 12 in (30.5 cm)
Provenance
Edmund Carpenter, New York
Jeffrey R. Myers, New York, acquired from the above
Private American collection, acquired from the above
Jeffrey R. Myers, New York, acquired from the above
Private American collection, acquired from the above
Catalogue Note
This deep bentwood bowl still bears traces of animal fat, remnants of its important ritual use. The interior is decorated with a surreal and exceptionally fine image of palraiyuk, a mythical man-eating creature with wolf-like jaws and attenuated body (see Nelson, The Eskimo About Bering Strait, Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D.C., 1899, pp. 444-445, et. seq.). Nelson identifies this type of image with the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, the probable origin of this bowl.