“WAVE AFTER WAVE HAS BROUGHT TO OUR SHORES BEAUTIFUL AND MYSTERIOUS TREASURES FROM UNKNOWN WORLDS, FIGURINES, ANIMALS, FETISHES, MASKS, CEREMONIAL OR USEFUL OBJECTS.  THEY ARE CALLED “PRIMITIVE” FOR WANT OF A BETTER NAME.  WHAT COULD NEVER HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IS THERE, ALL THE DREAMS AND ANGUISHES OF MAN.  THE HUNGER FOR FOOD AND SEX AND SECURITY, THE TERRORS OF NIGHT AND DEATH, THE THIRST FOR LIFE AND THE HOPE FOR SURVIVAL”

 Dominique deMenil

This unique Sioux beaded salesman sample is a mysterious one-of-a-kind example of a western salesman dating back to the 1870s. What’s the hidden story behind this piece? Was it a saddle beaded on commission by a person of Lakota Sioux ancestry for an itinerant salesman or for some other reason? Dating back to the 1870s and freshly out of a very old private Nebraska collection, it’s indeed unique.

A carved antelope pipe of the Sioux Lakota, from the upper Missouri in the 1860s, worn dark by a lifetime of handling and smoke. What its surface tells you, and what an old inscription reading Sitting Bull cannot.

In 1992, I spent a stormy evening at Maui Pomare's sheep ranch outside Wellington. What followed was one of the most meaningful conversations I have ever had about art, ownership, culture, and responsibility.