Whale Handle
Bering Sea, Alaska
500 – 1200 CE
marine mammal ivory
height: 7 ¾"
Inventory # E4120-50
Sold
acquired by the Diker Collection, now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Provenance
The Carpenter-De Menil Collection, New York, NY
Paul Steinhacker, New York, NY
Sotheby’s, New York, May 21, 1996, lot 220
Bill and Carol Wolf, NJ
Exhibited
“Gifts from the Ancestors,” Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; October 3, 2009–January 10, 2010
Published
World of Tribal Arts Magazine, Winter 1997, "Arctic Abstractions" Steinhacker, pg. 91 fig.13
Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Art Museum, 2009; pg. 210, fig. 5; pg. 309, cat. no. 171
Related Examples
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, cat. no. 1997-207 – See: Fitzhugh, et al., Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, Princeton University Art Museum, Yale University Press, 2009, pg. 210, pl. 4.
University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, cat. no. 64-21-922 – See: Wardwell, Allen. Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the Bering Strait. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1986, pg. 102, pl. 126.
Newark Museum, Newark,(on loan in 1977, current status unknown) – See: Lipton, Barbara. Survival: Life and Art of the Alaskan Eskimo. Newark: Newark Museum, 1977, pg. 60, no, 48.
Wardwell, Allen. Prehistoric Eskimo Ivories. Dalton: Studley Press, 1992, pl. 29
The refined elegance and sophistication of the design distinguishes this handle from comparable objects dating from the Punuk period (500 - 1200 CE). Brilliantly conceived in the shape of a stylised whale, the main body of the handle is finely raised to a central line, suggesting the differentiation of the body from the head of the animal. This is further enhanced by the masterful engraved design. Symmetrically arranged lines are evenly spread across the entire surface of the tail and body before tapering into two narrow design elements to either end of the handle. Their shape evokes the long extension of the skull and lower jaw of a whale. The artist has remarkably incorporated both skeletal structures and body mass within a confined space. During the Punuk period communal whaling became the dominant subsistence activity in the Bering Strait. The failure of a successful hunt meant starvation for the community. Much care was made in appeasing the spirits to circumvent that possibility. The extraordinary handle illustrated here was created to honor the majestic prey so vital to the survival of the peoples of this region.