Thule culture, Alaska
19th century
Walrus ivory
Height 3 1/2" (8.9 cm)
Provenance: Le Veel, Paris, September 1960; Peter and Vera Schnell, Zurich, Switzerland
Female figures of this type served multiple ceremonial functions in Inuit life, standing in for community members absent during ceremonies, averting infertility, or attracting the attention of the animal spirit (inua) during the doll festival. The Thule culture, ancestral to contemporary Inuit peoples across the Arctic, produced a sustained tradition of small carved ivory figures that encoded spiritual agency in portable and durable form. Female amulet figures represent some of the most personally significant objects in this tradition, carried and used across the course of a lifetime.
This figure is carved from walrus ivory with a clearly articulated face, defined torso, and simplified limbs, the ivory developed to a creamy patination consistent with age and handling. The carving is restrained and direct, the formal economy characteristic of Thule ivory work in which expressive power is concentrated in the face and overall posture rather than surface detail. Provenance traces through Le Veel of Paris in September 1960 and subsequently to the collection of Peter and Vera Schnell of Zurich, Switzerland, the same distinguished European collection from which several related Arctic pieces in this group descend.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Thule culture, Alaska
19th century
Walrus ivory
Height 3 1/2" (8.9 cm)
Provenance: Le Veel, Paris, September 1960; Peter and Vera Schnell, Zurich, Switzerland
Female figures of this type served multiple ceremonial functions in Inuit life, standing in for community members absent during ceremonies, averting infertility, or attracting the attention of the animal spirit (inua) during the doll festival. The Thule culture, ancestral to contemporary Inuit peoples across the Arctic, produced a sustained tradition of small carved ivory figures that encoded spiritual agency in portable and durable form. Female amulet figures represent some of the most personally significant objects in this tradition, carried and used across the course of a lifetime.
This figure is carved from walrus ivory with a clearly articulated face, defined torso, and simplified limbs, the ivory developed to a creamy patination consistent with age and handling. The carving is restrained and direct, the formal economy characteristic of Thule ivory work in which expressive power is concentrated in the face and overall posture rather than surface detail. Provenance traces through Le Veel of Paris in September 1960 and subsequently to the collection of Peter and Vera Schnell of Zurich, Switzerland, the same distinguished European collection from which several related Arctic pieces in this group descend.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
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