New Acquisitions Summer 2026

NEW ACQUISITIONS SUMMER 2026



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ART AND ANTIQUES FROM AFRICA, OCEANIA AND THE AMERICAS

www.jacarandatribal.com dori@jacarandatribal.com T +1 646-251-8528 New York City, NY 10025

© 2026, Jacaranda LLC Published July, 2026

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NEW ACQUISITIONS SUMMER 2026

We are pleased to present our catalog New Acquisitions —

chairman of the board of Neiman Marcus and assembled a

Summer 2026.

distinguished collection of art.

Our online exhibition comprises works from around the

We have also included a selection of miniatures gathered

world. Among the highlights is a magnificent Yup’ik sculpin

by us over the years — ranging from beautiful and tactile

mask from Alaska, a rare and important example of the

goldweights from West Africa, acquired by a jewelry

form. In Inuit mythology, the sculpin is a bottom-dwelling

designer in England in the 1960s and 1970s, to a very fine

sea creature that features prominently as the husband of

Inuit needle case. We also have probably the smallest

the powerful sea goddess, Nuliayuk. We also offer a very

known southern African snuff container, acquired from the

early and powerful shaman’s mask. On dangerous whaling

renowned collection of Paul F. Walter.

voyages, shamans were brought aboard to ensure a safe and successful hunt.

From the collection of the late artist Karl Stirner,

We are always excited by the discovery of new objects from cultures around the world, and hope you will enjoy this eclectic selection.

we present a Gope ancestor board from New Guinea.

A stunning drummer’s headdress from the collection

Dori & Daniel Rootenberg

of Stanley Marcus is also offered. Marcus served as

new york city, july 2026



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STANDING FIGURE TURKA, BURKINA FASO Late 19th / early 20th century Wood, glass beads Height: 12 in, 30 ½ cm PROVENANCE

Prof. Lou Wells, Boston, Massachusetts Private American collection

Among the Turka of southwestern Burkina Faso and

At the base of the long, columnar neck rests a strand

their neighbors across the Lobi-region cultural complex,

of cobalt blue trade glass beads — not a later addition but

figurative sculpture served not primarily as decoration but

an original component of the figure’s shrine assemblage,

as habitation — a carved body into which a spirit (thil)

their deep blue complementing the warm reddish-brown

could be invited to reside, protecting and guiding the

of the aged wood. Below the beads, the torso is lean and

household or individual who maintained it. These figures

schematic: small horizontal breast projections mark the

were placed on domestic shrines, fed with libations, and

figure as female, while the long arms hang close to the body,

addressed directly. They were not representations of the

hands meeting at the lower abdomen in the posture of

spirit; they were the spirit’s point of contact with the living.

patient, grounded receptivity characteristic of Lobi-region

This standing hermaphrodite figure presents the Turka

ancestral figures. The torso front is covered from chest

formal vocabulary at its most refined. The head is the

to groin in a dense diamond-lattice scarification pattern

commanding element: a high, smoothly domed cranium

— the same incised crosshatch vocabulary as the face,

giving way to a face covered in carefully incised scarification

here suggesting a garment, body adornment, or the ritual

— diagonal lines and chevron patterns traversing the

marking of a spiritually prepared body.

cheeks, brow, and temples in a dense geometric field that

The legs are simply rendered and slightly parted, the feet

would have identified the figure’s social and ritual identity

with individuated toes resting flat. The patina throughout is

as clearly as any text. A horizontal band of short vertical

warm and dry — a reddish-brown tone that has deepened

notches encircles the head at brow level, rendering a coiffure

in the recesses of the scarification to near-black, the natural

or headband with characteristic economy. The eyes are

result of age and ambient handling rather than heavy

deeply set and half-closed, the nose straight and projecting,

sacrificial application. This drier surface is typical of Turka

the mouth composed in an expression of composed inward

and northern Lobi figures and distinguishes them from the

authority that is common to the finest works of this region.

more heavily encrusted works further south.

price on request s ta n d i n g f i g u r e

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HELMET MASK IGBO OR IDOMA, NIGERIA Early 20th century Wood, metal Height:12 in, 30 ½ cm PROVENANCE

John and Nancy Hyde Devoe, New York.

Acquired circa 1960s–1970s

This commanding helmet mask rises from a broad, rounded

pigment — almost certainly camwood (Pterocarpus osun),

jaw to an elongated cranium crowned by a tiered topknot

a substance associated across the region with life force,

coiffure, its form instantly evoking the elaborate hairstyles

protection, and ritual readiness.

of prestige and ceremony that were once worn by titled

At the crown, an old iron wire repair binds a longitudinal

men and women throughout the Cross River hinterlands

crack that passes near the topknot. The wire is deeply

and the Benue valley. The face is modeled with restrained

oxidized, its rust fully absorbed into the surrounding wood,

naturalism: narrow slit eyes set beneath a gently furrowed

making it clear that the repair was carried out long ago —

brow, a composed expression, and a slightly parted mouth

during the mask’s active ceremonial life rather than after it

that suggests the mask is caught mid-utterance — mid-

left the community. Far from diminishing the object, this

invocation — rather than frozen in silence.

intervention speaks to how prized it was: worth mending,

The coiffure is the mask’s defining element. Incised

worth preserving, worth using again.

parallel lines sweep from crown to nape along the back and

The patina overall is exceptional — deep reddish-brown

sides, rendering in wood the carefully dressed and oiled

darkening to near-black in the recesses, with areas of wear

plaits of a woman of status — or, in some Igbo contexts, the

at the cheekbones and brow that trace the accumulated

ceremonially feminized persona of a maiden spirit (agbogho

handling of many years. Multiple perforations along the

mmuo). The rendering is precise and confident, the work of

lower perimeter and at the sides of the cranium provided

a carver deeply familiar with the social grammar of hair as

attachment points for a fiber or raffia costume that would

a marker of identity, age, and rank. A tiered conical knob

have shrouded the performer’s body, completing the

sits at the apex, its layered rings retaining vivid traces of red

transformation.

price $3,500 helme t mask

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helme t mask

helme t mask

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helme t mask

helme t mask

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helme t mask

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MASK OF A SCULPIN FISH YUP’IK, MAINLAND ALASKA Late 19th century Wood, pigments Length: 24 in, 61 cm PROVENANCE

Collected by Barton R. Lowder (1915 - 1991) from an Eskimo family. Lowder was on the crew of the steamer boat Nenana. The SS‑Nenana was a historic 237-foot river sternwheeler that operated on the Tanana and Yukon rivers in Alaska from 1933 to 1954.

Private Collection, New York

Sculpin (Cottus or Myoxocephalus species) were important

precision and formal inventiveness that characterize the

spirit beings in the Yup’ik cosmological system, and fish

finest Yup’ik zoomorphic work. The body is an elongated,

masks of this type were made for the Agayuyaraq (asking/

tapering form — broadening at the head and narrowing

inviting ceremony) or other winter ceremonials in which

to the tail — carved from a single substantial plank of

the yuat (persons/spirits) of sea creatures were invited,

driftwood with the confident economy of a carver who

honored, and asked to return.

understood the animal from long observation. The head is

The sculpin — ungainly, armored, broad-mouthed,

the commanding element: a broad, blunt snout with two

and bottom-dwelling — was not a fish that invited easy

large round eye apertures — the dancer’s windows to the

sentiment. But in the Yup’ik world of coastal Alaska, every

world, painted white to suggest the sculpin’s prominent

creature possessed a yua, an inner person or spirit, and it

eyes — above a wide, lipless mouth from which a row of

was precisely the most formidable and unexpected beings

individually carved teeth emerges, the inner lip painted the

that demanded the most careful ceremonial attention. The

vivid reddish-orange of the fish’s actual coloration and of

sculpin’s spiny body, gaping jaw, and fierce territorial nature

the yua’s vital energy.

made it a figure of power in the spiritual landscape of the

The dorsal surface carries the mask’s most extraordinary

Bering Sea coast, and the shaman who could speak to its

technical achievement: a full ridge of individually inserted

yua — who could invite it, honor it, and persuade it to

wooden spines running the length of the body’s centerline,

cooperate with human hunters — wielded knowledge of real

each pin driven through a drilled hole and secured from

consequence.

within, replicating with meticulous fidelity the sculpin’s

This mask renders the sculpin with the naturalistic

characteristic dorsal armature. The carver did not simplify

price on request mask of a sculpin fish

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mask of a sculpin fish

or suggest the spines — he counted them, placed them, made them real. This is the kind of specificity that Yup’ik mask-making demanded: the spirit of the sculpin would recognize itself, or it would not come.

Four lateral fins — each a flat, paddle-shaped piece of wood painted reddish-orange and lashed through drilled holes with sinew or twisted fiber — project from the body’s sides, their attachment knots still intact. One fin has separated from its lashing over the years, its loss the inevitable consequence of the organic materials that bound it; the attachment point and sinew remain, preserving the complete record of the original configuration. A carved caudal element at the upper terminus completes the fish form.

The surface throughout retains the warmth of aged, handled wood — the grain open and expressive, the paint worn and honest, the scratches and abrasions of ceremony and time fully integrated into the object’s presence.

Sculpin mask exhibited in Upside Down: Arctic Realities by Carpenter, E., Mooney, S. et al p. 222 fig. 17.

Sculpin masks are exceptionally rare. For a similar example, see Upside Down: Arctic Realities by Carpenter, E., Mooney, S. et al p. 222 fig. 17

Prickly sculpin (Cottus asper).

mask of a sculpin fish

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mask of a sculpin fish

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DRUMMER’S HEADDRESS

with warm red tones breaking through the deep black

AFO, NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

ground where the wood has been stressed or abraded.

Early 20th century

is a coiled serpent. The snake is the headdress’s most

Wood

charged element. Its body is rendered in dense, confident

Height: 11 ½ in, 29 cm

crosshatching — a pattern of incised lines laid at opposing

Nested within the ring, on both faces of the object,

angles across the coils — and it spirals inward from the PROVENANCE

ring’s circumference to a raised head at the center. Among

Stanley Marcus, Dallas, Texas

the Afo and related peoples of the Benue valley, the python

Christie’s, New York, May 1995

carries connotations of the earth, of cyclical regeneration, and of powers that move beneath the surface of ordinary

P U B L I C AT I O N H I S TO R Y

life. Here, encircled by spikes and held within a ring, the

African Art in American Collections, 1989, Robbins & Nooter p. 282

serpent is not threatening but contained — domesticated

illustration no. 734

power, harnessed to the rhythm of the drum.

The rear of the headdress is equally resolved, with the central spike rising to its greatest height from between

The ekpesi is among the most visually arresting headdress

two flanking forms that carry the same hatched surface

forms in the whole of West African masquerade tradition.

treatment as the serpent body, lending the back face a

Worn by the principal drummer during Afo masquerade

strict, heraldic quality. The patina throughout is deep

performances, it transforms the musician into something

and consistent — black with persistent reddish-brown

more than accompanist — into a figure of focused spiritual

undertones, built up from repeated applications of pigment

power whose rhythm mediates between the visible

and oil and worn to a subtle sheen at the spike tips and ring

community and the forces that govern it. The headdress is

edge.

not merely worn; it amplifies.

This example achieves its effect through a composition

Few headdress types from Nigeria’s Middle Belt command both the formal radicalism and the symbolic

of almost ruthless formal intelligence. From a compact,

density of the ekpesi. This example, with its intact spikes,

helmet-like base rises a great circular ring — the axle

finely incised serpent, and excellent overall condition,

of the entire composition — from which seven long,

represents the type at its most compelling.

tapering spikes radiate outward and upward in a fan that

This headdress comes from the collection of Stanley

simultaneously suggests a crown, a sunburst, and an open

Marcus. Harold Stanley Marcus (1905 – 2002) was president

hand raised in command. The spikes are carved with

and later chairman of the board of the luxury retailer

remarkable sureness: each tapers to a needle point, the

Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas, which his father and aunt

surfaces worn smooth and lustrous by age and handling,

had founded in 1907.

price $4,000 drummer’s headdress

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drummer’s headdress

drummer’s headdress

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drummer’s headdress

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MASK IDOMA, BENUE STATE, NIGERIA 19th century Wood Height: 7 ½ in, 19 cm PROVENANCE

Merton D. Simpson (1928–2013), New York City, New York, USA Robert & Patricia Berg, San Diego, California, USA Michael Oliver, New York, USA

The Idoma of the Benue River valley in central Nigeria are

confirm a life in active ceremony rather than storage. Small

renowned for their powerful masquerade traditions, in

lateral projections at the temples are characteristic of certain

which masks serve as conduits between the living and the

Idoma mask types and would have served as attachment

ancestral realm. This face mask displays the hallmarks of the

points for fiber, raffia, or other organic costume elements

Idoma aesthetic: a smooth, domed forehead, dramatically

that completed the masquerade ensemble.

slit almond-shaped eyes, a prominent and boldly modeled

Idoma masks of this type were performed within the

nose, and an open, slightly parted mouth that conveys

oglinye and anjenu masquerade associations, appearing at

both authority and animation. The overall form is strongly

funerals, initiations, and community judicial proceedings.

ovoid, with a refined economy of surface that draws the eye

The masks embody ancestral spirits (alekwu) whose

inward, commanding attention without ornament.

presence enforced social order and mediated between

The dark, lustrous patina — deep brown verging on black

worlds. The open mouth suggests the mask was intended to

— speaks to sustained ritual use and repeated application of

speak — to give voice to the ancestors in the public arena of

libations or oils over many years. Wear and abrasion along

ceremony.

the high points of the forehead and cheekbones further

price $2,500 mask

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mask

mask

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mask

At the center of the composition, framed within a

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SPIRIT BOARD GOPE URAMA (URAMU) ISLAND, PAPUAN GULF, NEW

luminous white oval field, the spirit face looks outward.

It is rendered as two lobed forms stacked vertically — the larger upper circle the head, the smaller lower lobe the chest

GUINEA

or body — in warm reddish-brown, with two round eyes

Early 20th century

decades. The nose is lightly indicated; below it, the chest

Wood, pigments

lobe carries a small curved projection suggesting a mouth

Height: 45 in, 114 cm

or chin. The face is simple and absolute. It does not invite

whose white pupils catch and hold the viewer across the

interpretation so much as acknowledgment: something PROVENANCE

Karl Stirner (1923–2016), Pennsylvania, USA

looks back.

From this central face, white curvilinear lines extend upward and downward along the board’s vertical axis, tracing the organic logic of leaf veins or river channels

The gope — flat, oval spirit boards carved and painted by the

toward the pointed terminations of the form. Flanking the

peoples of the Papuan Gulf — are among the most iconic

central panel on both sides, the field is filled with tightly

objects produced anywhere in the Pacific. They are not

nested arc bands in reddish-brown outlined in black —

merely beautiful; they are inhabited. Each board houses the

a pattern that reads as ribs, as water, as the scaling of a

captured soul of an enemy slain in battle, a force (imunu)

crocodile, as the layered energies of a contained force

that the owning clan could direct toward protection,

pressing outward against the board’s edge. The technical

fertility, and the amplification of power in war and the hunt.

execution is confident and assured, the bands laid with

Kept in the men’s ceremonial house (eravo), hung above

a control that speaks to a painter working within a long-

the doorway or propped upright along the walls, gope were

practiced tradition.

fed, addressed, and renewed with fresh pigment before

The reverse is unpainted and deeply patinated — dark,

important undertakings. They were, in the most literal sense

dry, and pitted throughout with the channels of wood-

available to their makers, alive.

boring insects, a testament to the board’s age and to the

This example from Urama Island presents the form at

humid environment of the Gulf in which it spent its active

its most commanding. The board is large — a full leaf- or

life. An old iron wire repair at the upper back binds a

canoe-shaped oval, pointed at crown and base — and

longitudinal crack, and a painted collection number —

its painted surface has retained exceptional color and

consistent with early Australian or European institutional

compositional integrity across what is clearly a considerable

numbering — confirms a collecting history that predates

span of years. The palette is the classic Gulf triad: white

the modern market. The handle, through which the board

from burned lime, reddish-brown from iron ochre, and

was thrust into the ground or held upright in ceremony,

black from charcoal, applied in flat fields and fine outlines

survives intact. When purchased, a later coat of paint was

that together achieve a visual complexity far beyond their

professionally removed to reveal the original surface.

material simplicity.

Old collection number L8200 on reverse.

price $6,000 spirit board gope

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Urama shrine photographed by Frank Hurley, 1924.

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spirit board gope

spirit board gope

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spirit board gope

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PRESTIGE HAT, DRC LEGA PEOPLES, DRC Early 20th century Vegetable fiber, cowrie shells, mother-of-pearl shell, spotted

Every surface is a surface for meaning. The dome’s front

cowrie, bone toggle, trade glass beads, shell disc beads

face is centered on a large, luminous mother-of-pearl

Height (from bottom of strap): 18 in, 46 cm

shell — its iridescence catching light in the dimness of the ceremonial house, signaling wealth and connection to

PROVENANCE

waters far beyond the forest. Surrounding it, cowrie shells

Michael Oliver, New York City

are sewn on in pairs and clusters across both dome and crest, their quantity and careful arrangement speaking to accumulated exchange relationships, to journeys of trade

Among the Lega of the eastern Congo, membership in the

and initiation, to a life spent moving through networks

Bwami society — the elaborate, multi-tiered association that

of obligation and reciprocity. At the hinge between dome

organized social, moral, and spiritual life — was expressed

and crest, a large spotted cowrie — rarer and more visually

not through political office or inherited rank alone, but

dramatic than the common money cowrie — marks the

through the accumulation and display of specific objects.

compositional and symbolic center of gravity. Along the

Bone, shell and fiber were not merely materials; they were

upper edge of the fan, a fine border of small turquoise

the visible language of wami initiation, each object encoding

trade glass beads introduces a note of chromatic precision,

a level of achievement, a body of knowledge, and a set of

the blue-green a color associated throughout the region

obligations to the community. A man’s collection of Bwami

with water, with the ancestral realm, and with initiated

objects was, in the most direct sense, his biography made

knowledge.

tangible.

This prestige hat is a Bwami object of evident senior rank.

Hanging from the dome’s lower rim is a long pendant of stacked white shell or bone disc beads with a single dark

Its construction alone signals exceptional status: a tightly

accent near the crown — worn to fall alongside the face

coiled dome of dark vegetable fiber forms the foundation,

or beneath the chin, completing the transformation of the

rising to a fan-shaped crest of the same material that is

wearer from an ordinary person into a Bwami initiate of

attached at the crown via a curved peg of bone or ivory —

senior grade, a man whose presence commanded attention,

the toggle itself a Bwami material of significance — and tilts

deference, and the acknowledgment of accumulated

backward at a proud angle that would have given the wearer

wisdom.

a commanding profile. The silhouette is both architectural

The fiber throughout has aged to a deep, warm brown,

and animate, combining the stability of the dome with

the patina of long handling and ceremonial use. The shells

the upward energy of the crest in a form that reads as

retain their luster. The overall condition is excellent for an

simultaneously helmet and crown.

object of this complexity and organic materiality.

price on request p r e s t i g e h at , d r c

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p r e s t i g e h at , d r c

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FO’O’ABA PRESTIGE BELT ARE’ARE OR KWAIO PEOPLES, MALAITA, SOLOMON ISLANDS Late 19th / early 20th century Galu (white shell disc beads), fira’i (red shell disc beads), fulu (black shell disc beads), dolphin or canine teeth, vegetable fiber Length: 29 in, 74 cm PROVENANCE

Matthias Lemaire, Amsterdam

In the Solomon Islands, and on Malaita above all, shell

with a muted, chalky luminescence. At regular intervals,

valuables were never merely ornamental. They were

strands of black fulu beads interrupt the white in crisp

the medium through which life’s most consequential

horizontal bands, the dark discs ground from the black lip

transactions were conducted: bride wealth, compensation

of bivalve shells and polished to a matte finish that creates

for injury or death, the conclusion of peace between

a precise rhythmic contrast. Where the strands converge

clans, initiation into adult society, and the honoring of the

at the dolphin tooth terminal, warm bands of reddish fira’i

ancestral dead. A man’s standing was measured in shell,

beads emerge — ground from the pink-red interior of

and a belt of this quality — dense with galu, fira’i, and fulu

Chama or similar shell, each bead representing labor and

beads, terminated in dolphin teeth — was an object of

exchange investment of a kind that made red shell among

serious economic and social gravity, assembled over time

the most valued of all Malaitan materials.

through accumulated exchange relationships and the labor of many hands.

The terminal pendant is a bound mass of dolphin teeth — perhaps forty or more individual teeth drawn from multiple

This fo’o’aba is a prestige chest belt of outstanding

animals, their long curved forms tapering to points, cream

completeness and refinement. Its body is formed from

to warm ivory in tone, their hollow root canals visible at

ten or more parallel strands of shell disc beads running in

the cut ends and confirming their cetacean origin beyond

close parallel across the full width of the ornament, each

doubt. Dolphin teeth (bakiha) were, alongside shell money,

strand precisely loaded with the three canonical bead types

the most important form of wealth currency across much

of Malaitan valuables. The dominant white galu beads

of the Solomons: used in brideprice payments, mortuary

— ground from Conus or white Tridacna shell — form

feasts, and compensation transactions, their accumulation

the ground of the composition, their uniform small discs

required either direct participation in communal dolphin

creating a surface of dense, even texture that catches light

drives — a dangerous and ritually charged undertaking

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— or extensive exchange networks reaching across island

the chest of its owner during ceremonies, feasts, and the

groups. A cluster of this density and uniformity represents

major social performances that defined a man’s public life

substantial accumulated wealth.

on Malaita.

The junction between bead strands and tooth cluster

The overall condition is excellent: the beads retain their

is itself a feat of craftsmanship: a tightly bound collar of

original surface character — the galu chalky and dense, the

alternating dark and light disc beads creates a structured,

fulu dark and precise, the fira’i warm and glowing — and

architecturally precise transition, the strands disciplined

the teeth, though stained with age and use, are complete and

into order before releasing into the mass of teeth. At the

secure in their binding. This is not an object assembled for

opposite terminus, original twisted vegetable fiber ties

sale but one that accumulated its materials across years of

survive intact, through which the belt was secured across

purposeful exchange.

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HEADREST MUTSAGO SHONA PEOPLES, ZIMBABWE Late 19th / early 20th century Wood

of exceptional refinement. The uppermost zone flanks the

Height: 5 ½ in, 14 cm

column with paired crescent-shaped lobes densely covered in fine stippled dotwork — a texture that catches raking

PROVENANCE

light and creates a field of quiet visual vibration against the

Ben Hunter, London

smoother surfaces on either side. The central and dominant

Private Collection, USA

zone is commanded by two large concentric circle motifs projecting laterally from the column, each spiraling inward through five or six tightly incised rings to a small raised

Among the Shona of Zimbabwe, the headrest (mutsago)

boss at the center — the chirango or coil motif that is the

was one of the most intimate objects a person could own.

most characteristic element of the finest Shona carving,

Used nightly to support the head during sleep, it was also

evoking simultaneously the coiled snake, the unfolding

the instrument through which the sleeper maintained

of time, and the spiral logic of ancestral connection. The

contact with the ancestral world: Shona belief holds that the

column itself, between and behind the circles, carries

most significant communications from the vadzimu — the

registers of parallel horizontal lines, diamond chain

ancestral spirits — arrive through dreams, and the headrest

patterns, and lozenge forms — each face slightly varied, the

was the physical threshold across which those dreams

mark of a carver at ease within a tradition he has thoroughly

were received. A man’s headrest was buried with him at

internalized.

death, or passed to a favored heir as an object charged with

The lower register bridges column and base through

accumulated personal and ancestral power. It was never

paired arched forms filled with further dotwork and

simply furniture.

chevron incision, and the oval base itself is edged with a

This example achieves the full formal ambition of the

continuous running border of small opposing triangles —

Shona headrest tradition. The crescent platform is generous

the njuzu teeth pattern that appears on the finest Shona

and precisely curved — a smooth, rounded D-section arc

objects as a marker of completeness and protective intent.

that would have cradled the neck with exact comfort, its

The base surface shows the smooth, dark compaction of

surface worn to a deep, even patina by long nocturnal use.

long contact with sleeping mats and earth floors.

No carver decorated the crescent itself; its eloquence is

The patina throughout is the object’s most eloquent

entirely in its form, in the confident sweep of the curve and

testimony: warm reddish-brown deepening to near-black in

the quality of the wood beneath the hand.

the incised channels, the high surfaces polished by decades

Below the crescent, the central support column rises from a broad oval base through three distinct decorative registers

of handling to a silky, living sheen. This is a headrest that was used, and used well, across a long life.

sold headrest mutsago

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headrest mutsago

headrest mutsago

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headrest mutsago

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FAMILY MASK GELA BASSA, LIBERIA

horizontal band of finely notched rope-twist carving

Early 20th century

rendered with precision — above which a diagonal lattice

Wood

panel suggests a carefully dressed and arranged coiffure,

Height: 6 in, 15 cm

flanked by small raised knob ornaments at the crown.

circles the brow — a diadem of carved fiber or plaited hair

Hair arrangement among the Bassa, as across much of PROVENANCE

West Africa, was a primary expression of social identity

Private Collection

and aesthetic refinement; its careful rendering here signals

Paolo Akam

that the spirit embodied by this mask is one of cultivated, deliberate beauty.

The eyes are the face’s commanding element. Heavily

The Bassa of coastal and interior Liberia have long

lidded, with dramatically swollen upper lids that hang low

maintained the Gela masquerade as one of their central

over the lower — nearly closing the eye — they convey a

institutions of social regulation and spiritual authority. The

gaze that is simultaneously composed and penetrating,

Gela mask embodies a female spirit of beauty, composure,

turned inward toward the spirit world rather than outward

and moral order — appearing at initiations, funerals, and

toward the crowd. In Bassa aesthetic thought, beauty of

community celebrations to affirm the values that bind Bassa

this kind is not passive; it is powerful. The Gela spirit sees

society together. When the Gela dances, accompanied by

what ordinary eyes cannot, and its nearly closed eyes signal

singers and musicians, its presence is understood as the

the depth of that perception. There are no apertures in the

spirit made visible: a distillation of feminine grace and

eye — the dancer sees through the mask’s open mouth or

ancestral power that elevates the occasion beyond the

a small hole below, leaving the spirit face complete and

ordinary.

uncompromised.

This Gela mask presents the type in its most refined

The lateral edges of the face — from brow to chin — are

and concentrated form. The face is an elongated oval that

framed by a continuous border of fine notched or rope-twist

narrows to a composed pointed chin — a silhouette that

carving that echoes the brow band and creates a contained,

conveys both dignity and delicacy — its surface treated with

architectural silhouette when the mask is viewed in profile.

an even, deep black pigmentation that absorbs light and

Below the full, slightly parted lips, a small chin element

gives the mask an interior quality, as though illuminated

decorated in crosshatch incision marks a beard or a tattoo

from within rather than reflecting from without. The

— a masculine inflection on what is otherwise a feminized

pigment, renewed before each performance, has been fully

spirit form, the kind of deliberate ambiguity that gives the

absorbed into the wood over many years, its surface worn to

finest Bassa masks their psychological complexity.

a subtle sheen at the brow, eyelids, and lips.

The coiffure is the mask’s crowning statement. A

An example by the same hand is in the Tervuren Museum collection.

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MALE FIGURE IKENGA IGBO, NIGERIA Early 20th century Wood, natural pigments Height: 11 in, 28 cm PROVENANCE

John and Nancy Hyde Devoe, New York.

Acquired circa 1960’s–1970’s

Among the Igbo of southeastern Nigeria, the ikenga stands

implicated in the owner’s achievements, silent witnesses to

as one of the most philosophically charged categories of

every libation poured.

personal shrine objects on the continent. Its name translates

The figure is compact and powerful: a broad-shouldered

loosely as “place of strength” or “power of the right hand”

torso with rounded chest projections — likely scarification

— the hand that wields the tool, draws the bow, strikes the

marks rendered in the round, a sign of initiated status —

enemy, and signs the agreement. Every man of standing

arms held close, and legs slightly parted above the wide

owned one. It was fed, spoken to, and held accountable.

flared base that grounds the whole composition. The face

When a man died, his ikenga was sometimes split in two,

is schematic and inward-looking, a surface that receives

severing the compact between the living and the force that

attention rather than performing it. This is a figure built for

had animated his striving.

veneration, not display.

This example presents the form in its most potent

The patina is the object’s most eloquent testimony. The

distillation. Two great horns — bold, planar, and slightly

surface is densely encrusted, matte and variegated, built up

flared at their tips — erupt from the crown of the figure,

through repeated applications of palm wine, kola nut, and

reaching upward with an authority that borders on

animal sacrifice over many years of active shrine use. The

aggression. They are not decorative; they are the visual

recesses are blackened; the high points have been worn to a

grammar of chi, of vital force directed outward into the

softer tone by handling. This is not the patina of age alone

world. At the apex of each horn a small rounded head

— it is the accumulated record of a life’s ambitions, setbacks,

emerges, subtle presences that expand the figure’s register

and victories, compressed into wood and offering.

beyond the individual — ancestors or attendant forces

price $1,500 male figure ikenga

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male figure ikenga

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male figure ikenga

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FACE MASK OF A MAN

with confident fidelity to human anatomy, its bridge rising unbroken from the brow in a single strong line.

The mouth is the mask’s most technically demanding

YUP’IK OR INUPIAQ PEOPLES, ALASKA

feature. It is held open — not in anguish but in speech, or

Pre-contact to early contact period

set into the upper jaw is a row of small, individually shaped

Excavated wood, caribou teeth

teeth in bone or ivory, each one fitted with care into the carved

Height: 9 ½ in, 24 cm

wooden gum line. The effect, across the centuries since this

song, or the controlled exhalation of shamanic power — and

mask was made and used, remains viscerally alive: the mask PROVENANCE

Christie’s, New York Private Collection, New York

breathes, or is about to speak, or has just stopped singing.

Below the lower lip, flanking the chin, are two labret pegs — the ellanguaq of male adult identity among Yup’ik and Inupiaq men, worn through piercings made at adolescence and replaced with progressively larger plugs as a man aged

The shamans of the Yup’ik and Inupiaq peoples of coastal

and accumulated standing. Their presence here identifies

Alaska occupied a singular position at the membrane

the spirit or persona embodied in the mask as a man of

between the visible world and the world beneath

status — a hunter, an elder, or a being of the spirit world

appearances — the realm of yuat, the persons or spirits that

rendered in recognizably human terms of prestige and

animate every living thing, every animal, every force of

maturity. One peg appears to be integral to the mask’s wood;

weather and sea. It was the shaman (angalkuq) who could

the other, darker and denser in tone, may be a separate

perceive and negotiate with these presences, and it was

material — bone or stone — inserted into a carved recess, a

through the mask that this negotiation was made visible

distinction in material that may itself carry meaning.

to the community. A mask worn in the qasgiq — the men’s

The patina speaks unambiguously of age and ground

ceremonial house — or carried on the open water during

contact: a deep reddish-brown that has compacted to a near-

the hunt did not merely represent a spirit; it materialized

silky surface over the high planes of the forehead, cheeks, and

one, giving it a face through which it could look back at the

brow, darkening to near-black in the recessed eye sockets and

living.

nostrils. The reverse retains the rougher, lighter-toned surface

This mask presents a face of exceptional presence and

of wood less exposed to the elements, and the slight warping

authority. The forehead is broad and domed, the brow ridge

and checked grain visible along the forehead are consistent

a single heavy shelf from which deep-set eye apertures are

with cyclical freezing and thawing over a long period in

cut — asymmetrically, deliberately so, the left aperture

the ground. A single perforation at the left cheek provided

wider and more irregular than the right. In Yup’ik shamanic

an attachment or lashing point for the fiber or sinew that

tradition, asymmetry was not error but grammar: the

secured the mask to its wearer or to its ceremonial rigging.

face that looks at once into the ordinary world and the

Masks of this quality are rarely encountered outside

spirit world cannot be perfectly balanced, for these are not

major museum collections. Old label with collection #45 on

equivalent realms. The nose is broad and projecting, carved

the back.

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MINIATURES ITEMS 13–29

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PIN HEAD OR AMULET DEPICTING CONFRONTED IBEX HEADS LURISTAN, WESTERN IRAN c. 1200–800 bce Cast bronze Length: 2 in, 5 cm PROVENANCE

Estate of Karl Stirner. Karl Stirner (1923 – 2016) was a German-born American sculptor known internationally for his metalwork.

A finely cast Luristan bronze object in the form of two ibex

with the bezoar ibex native to the Zagros highlands — the

heads facing outward in opposite directions, their sweeping

emblematic animal of ancient Iran, holding a symbolic

horns arching upward and inward to nearly meet at the

status analogous to the lion in Assyria, the dragon in

apex, forming the characteristic open-work silhouette that

Babylon, and the bull in Sumer.

defines this celebrated class of ancient Iranian metalwork.

The back-to-back double-headed composition — two

The piece most plausibly functioned as the decorative head

animals sharing a single base, their gazes directed outward

of a dress pin — a well-attested Luristan form in which an

in opposite directions — carries an inherently apotropaic

elaborately sculpted bronze terminal was mounted atop

quality, the all-seeing vigilance of the paired ibex guarding

a long pin shaft used to fasten a cloak or garment at the

its wearer from every approach. Small paired-animal

shoulder — or alternatively as a pendant amulet worn on

compositions are considered among the most distinctive

the body. Either use would have placed this object in close,

of all cast bronze works reported from Luristan, and at

visible relationship with its owner, serving simultaneously

this intimate scale the piece would have been an object of

as personal adornment and apotropaic protection.

daily personal significance rather than public ceremony.

The two heads — each rendered with the schematic

The surface carries a rich dark patina — deep charcoal and

naturalism typical of Luristan animal bronzework — share

gunmetal with silver highlights on the high-relief surfaces

a single neck post rising from a flattened, rounded base

— consistent with age and likely burial or votive deposition

designed for attachment to a shaft or suspension cord.

at the end of its working life. Most Luristan bronzes

Circular eyes are rendered as deep drilled depressions, and

have been recovered from funerary contexts, suggesting

the elongated muzzles taper with confident economy. The

that objects of this kind, however personal in daily use,

long curving horns are of the capra aegagrus type, consistent

ultimately served a ceremonial function in death as well.

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BEAR FETISH WITH ARROWHEAD BUNDLE ZUNI PUEBLO, NEW MEXICO 19th to early 20th century Turquoise, stone arrowhead (obsidian or chert), coral, shell, turquoise or glass bead, sinew Length: 3 in, 7 ½ cm PROVENANCE

John and Nancy Hyde Devoe, New York. Acquired circa

manifestation. The four legs are compact and grounded, the

1960s–1970s

haunches low, the posture one of alert stillness. The head is minimal and essential — a presence rather than a portrait,

Among the Zuni of the American Southwest, certain stones were understood to contain living spirits — not carved into being, but discovered, recognized, and then tended. A naturally occurring stone that suggested an animal form was itself already a fetish; the carver’s task was simply to clarify what the stone already held. The bear, foremost among the six directional guardians of the Zuni world, was associated with the west, with healing, and with the most potent forms of protective medicine. A bear fetish was not an ornament; it was a presence, an ally, a living participant in the spiritual negotiations that sustained the individual and the community.

This bear fetish is carved from a piece of natural turquoise of exceptional character — a vivid sky-blue stone veined throughout with a dark brown matrix that the carver has incorporated rather than concealed, leaving the animal’s dorsal surface in its raw, unworked state while smoothing and defining the body below. The effect is striking: the bear appears to emerge from the earth itself, its turquoise flesh rising from the matrix stone as though caught in the act of

as Zuni aesthetic sensibility demands.

Across the animal’s back, lashed with fine sinew wrapping, lies a dark stone arrowhead — obsidian or chert, its surface oxidized and ancient — bound in the classic configuration of the empowered fetish. The arrowhead amplifies the bear’s medicine, directing its protective force with the precision and intent of the hunter’s aim. At the lashing point, a small medicine bundle has accumulated: a single orange coral or shell tube bead, a small turquoise or green glass bead, and fine white shell disc beads, all bound together with sinew — offerings made to the spirit within the stone, prayers compressed into material form. These bundles were built up over time, each addition representing an act of petition or gratitude, and their presence confirms that this fetish was actively used and tended across a significant period of its life.

Turquoise, coral, and shell — the three materials of this bundle — form the sacred color triad of Pueblo ceremonial life: blue-green for sky and water, red-orange for life and blood, white for breath and cloud. Their combination here is not accidental.

price $1,200 bear fetish with arrowhead bundle

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bear fetish with arrowhead bundle

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BULLROARER ABORIGINAL, AUSTRALIA 19th to early 20th century Hardwood (mulga or similar) Height: 8 in, 20 cm

that effective bullroarers require: a long, narrow lens tapering symmetrically to fine points at both ends, the

PROVENANCE

widest point at the center providing the mass and surface

Private US collection

area that generate sound when the board is spun. The wood is a dense Australian hardwood — reddish-brown, closegrained, light relative to its size — carved from a single

The bullroarer is among the oldest and most widely distributed sacred objects in human culture, but nowhere has it been maintained with greater ceremonial intensity and philosophical depth than among the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Known by many names across the continent’s hundreds of distinct language groups, the bullroarer is at once a musical instrument, a ceremonial object, a repository of ancestral power, and a physical embodiment of the Dreaming itself.

When swung on a cord in a wide arc overhead, the bullroarer produces its characteristic sound — a deep, pulsing roar that rises and falls with the speed of rotation, carrying across remarkable distances through open country. This sound was understood as the voice of an ancestor, the breath of a Dreaming being, or the direct manifestation of a sacred presence. In many traditions the sound alone was sufficient to clear women and uninitiated men from ceremonial ground; in others, the bullroarer’s voice announced the beginning of initiation, signaled the presence of the sacred, or called participants to ceremony from across the landscape.

This example is a finely made object of evident age and use. The form is resolved with the aerodynamic precision

piece and thinned to the exact profile that experience across generations had established as most effective.

The entire visible face is covered in deeply incised herringbone decoration organized around a strong central spine: from this axis, diagonal parallel lines radiate outward in alternating directions to either side, creating a bold zigzag or chevron field that runs uninterrupted from tip to tip. In Australian Aboriginal decorative tradition, herringbone and chevron patterns of this kind are among the oldest and most semantically charged visual vocabularies — appearing on objects, on bodies, and in sand drawings across the continent, their specific meaning varying by region and context but consistently associated with water, with movement, with the tracks of ancestral beings across the landscape, and with the structural grammar of the Dreaming. The confident, assured execution — deeply cut, evenly spaced, covering every available surface — suggests a maker working from internalized knowledge rather than copying: this pattern was not designed, it was known.

At the lower tip, a drilled hole provided the attachment point for the cord — the physical connection through which the performer’s arm transmitted energy into the spinning board, setting the ancestor’s voice in motion.

price $800 bullroarer

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NEEDLE CASE WITH BEAR YUP’IK OR INUPIAQ PEOPLES, ALASKA 19th century Walrus ivory, European velvet ribbon

hand of a carver working within a tradition of miniature

Height (needle case only): 3 in, 7 ½ cm

precision that Arctic craftspeople brought to its highest expression.

PROVENANCE

Private Northeast collection

The case is suspended from a loop of black European velvet ribbon — a trade material that entered the Arctic through the fur trade networks of the 18th and 19th centuries, and whose presence here anchors the object

In the Arctic world, needles were not simple tools. The

within the period of early contact without diminishing its

ability to sew — to construct the layered, perfectly fitted

essential indigenous character. The velvet was chosen for its

skin garments that stood between a person and death by

softness and its ability to pass cleanly through the drilled

exposure — was among the most essential skills a woman

suspension hole without abrading the ivory.

could possess, and the needles that made this possible were

From the same velvet cord, at the base, hangs a second

objects of genuine consequence. To lose a needle on the

object of equal significance: a tiny carved ivory bear, complete

tundra or the sea ice was a serious matter. The needle case

in all its essential anatomy — four legs, a body, a head —

that protected them was accordingly an object of care and

rendered with the economy and authority that miniature

pride, made with the same precision and investment of

Inuit carving demands. The polar bear (nanuq) was the most

meaning that went into the garments themselves.

powerful animal in the Inuit and Yup’ik spiritual world: the

This miniature needle case is carved from a single piece

being most nearly equivalent to a human in intelligence and

of walrus ivory — tapering from a flat-crowned cylinder

presence, the animal most closely associated with shamanic

at the top to a rounded base — its entire surface covered

transformation, and the most sought-after protector for

in finely engraved decoration executed in the classic dot-

personal amulets. To carry a miniature bear was to carry the

and-line vocabulary of Arctic ornamental art. Horizontal

bear’s power — its strength, its hunting acuity, its capacity

registers of precisely drilled dot-punches divide the surface

to move between worlds — compressed into an object small

into bands, within which paired crescent or arc motifs

enough to hold in a closed fist.

bilaterally face each other on opposing sides of the cylinder

Together — needle case and bear, utility and protection,

— forms that may reference eyes, the ulu knife, or the

the domestic and the shamanic bound on the same cord —

structural visual grammar of yua, the inner person present

this pair represents the kind of object that was made for a

in all living things. The dots retain their original dark infill

specific person, carried close to the body across years of use,

— graphite or soot worked into the incisions to make the

and charged with accumulated personal meaning that no

pattern legible — and the engraving shows the practiced

catalog description can fully recover.

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needle case with bear

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BEAR TOOTH AMULET SIBERIAN OR ALASKAN 18th century or earlier Bear canine tooth (worked) Height: 3 ½ in, 9 cm PROVENANCE

Seward Kennedy, London and New York

The bear — in virtually every culture that shared its range

contact. This is old material — the tooth itself, before any

across the northern hemisphere — occupied a singular

carving was applied to it, was already an object of age and

position in the spiritual imagination. Larger than any other

power. Across the body of the tooth, a series of diagonal

land predator in its environment, capable of standing and

spiral grooves has been incised — possibly serving as a tally

walking upright, of using its forepaws with something

of kills, though their precise meaning is uncertain.

approaching manual dexterity, of appearing to die each

At the crown, the natural root of the tooth is retained —

winter and return to life each spring: the bear was the

broader, darker, more porous — as the terminal element

animal that most closely mirrored human nature while

of the composition. A small metal fitting at this juncture

exceeding human power. To possess a part of the bear — to

provided either a suspension point for wearing the amulet

carry its tooth — was to carry the bear itself, its strength,

on a cord against the body, or a repair that kept the tooth

its endurance, its capacity for periodic death and renewal

in use after age or ceremony had stressed it. Either way, the

compressed into a single object that could be held in a

fitting speaks to an object too valued to retire.

closed fist.

This carved bear canine is a piece of considerable physical

The unworked tip is left entirely in its natural state — the long curving point of the original canine, its surface cracked

authority. The tooth itself is large — a fully developed

with age, its color a lighter cream where the outer dentine

canine from an adult bear of substantial size — its naturally

has worn or split away to reveal the paler interior. This

curved form tapering from a broad, rounded crown to a

decision — to leave the natural tip untouched while carving

long, sweeping point. The dentine has aged to a deep amber-

the body above — is the same formal intelligence seen in the

gold, the surface cracked along its length in the longitudinal

companion piece, and it speaks to a shared understanding:

lines that develop in tooth material over many generations,

the tooth’s own form is already eloquent, and the carver’s

the cracks now filled with the dark staining of time and

task is to extend that eloquence, not to override it.

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HAIR COMB YUP’IK OR INUPIAQ PEOPLES, ALASKA 19th century or earlier Walrus ivory or caribou antler Height: 2 in, 5 cm PROVENANCE

Seward Kennedy, London and New York

Personal grooming in the Arctic world was not vanity

acknowledgment that even a comb deserves a moment of

but social practice — the careful arrangement of hair,

formal attention.

the maintenance of clothing, the attention to one’s own

The body above is a plain trapezoidal panel, its surfaces

appearance within the community were expressions of

undecorated, allowing the natural beauty of the material to

self-respect and of respect for those around you, values

carry the visual weight. And it does: the speckled, mottled

as central to Inuit and Yup’ik social life as any other. The

pattern of the ivory or antler reads across the surface like

objects made for this purpose were accordingly made with

a map of the material’s own interior life — the record of

care, and this small ivory comb is no exception.

growth and time encoded in the structure of the animal’s

Carved from a single piece of walrus ivory or caribou antler — the material warm cream-yellow, its internal structure visible as a beautiful mottled pattern of amber-

tooth or horn, now made visible by the carver’s thinning of the piece to its working dimensions.

At the crown, a fully three-dimensional circular loop

brown flecks that give the surface a vitality no manufactured

rises from the body — the ivory worked in the round to

object could replicate — the comb is resolved in three zones

create an open ring through which a sinew cord could pass,

that together constitute a complete and elegant object. At

keeping the comb suspended from the owner’s clothing

the base, approximately 20 evenly cut teeth of consistent

or belt pouch, accessible at any moment. The loop’s two

width and graduated length perform the object’s practical

terminal tips rest against the body with a slight organic

function with the precision that daily use demanded: the

irregularity that is the mark of a hand-carved object rather

gaps between them clean, the tips rounded, every tooth

than a manufactured one. This small detail — the imperfect

intact after what may be well over a century of existence. A

perfection of the loop — is what finally confirms the object’s

fine incised horizontal line marks the boundary between

humanity: it was made by someone, for someone, with the

tooth zone and body, a structural articulation that also

particular attention that small personal objects attract when

reads as a quiet decorative statement — the maker’s

they are meant to last.

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BIRD GAMING PIECE YUP’IK OR INUPIAQ, ALASKA 19th century or earlier Walrus ivory Length: 3 in, 7 ½ cm PROVENANCE

Private US Collection

The long Arctic winter — months of darkness, confined

rounded, turned and tilted at a gentle angle that gives the

quarters, the qasgiq or family dwelling filled with the sounds

resting bird an expression of relaxed alertness — one eye

and warmth of people pressed close together — generated

open, aware but unhurried, entirely at ease in its moment.

its own rich interior culture of storytelling, music, and

A single precise notch defines the beak. Nothing more was

games. Among the most widespread of Inuit and Yup’ik

needed.

games were those involving sets of carved animal pieces

Into the back, a smooth oval cavity runs the full dorsal

strung on sinew cord, the object being to swing the pieces

length — scooped clean and well-finished, its interior

and catch them on a pin or hook with a single fluid motion.

darkened with age and use. On a gaming piece of this type

Skill, speed, and the particular weight and balance of each

the cavity reduced weight, adjusted balance, and gave the

carved piece all mattered. The best pieces were made with

piece its particular flight and spin when swung on the cord.

care, and kept.

Near the tail, a drilled suspension hole accepted the sinew

This resting bird is one such piece — a gaming token

that connected this bird to its set — thread worn smooth by

of exceptional quality, carved from walrus ivory or dense

long use, the hole’s edges burnished by the passage of cord

marine mammal bone that has aged over many decades to

across many winter evenings of play.

a deep, warm amber-brown. The form is a ground-nesting

The surface throughout carries the accumulated evidence

game bird at rest — a ptarmigan or eider settled flat, body

of that use: fine random scratches, worn edges, a burnished

a long low wedge tapering from rounded breast to fine tail

sheen on the highest points where hands have passed most

tip, the profile as close to the tundra as the bird itself would

often. No carved decoration was applied — the form itself

make it. The head is the carving’s quiet masterstroke: small,

was considered sufficient, and correctly so.

price $750 bird gaming piece

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bird gaming piece

bird gaming piece

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AWL OR TAT TOO NEEDLE IN THE FORM OF A FOX YUP’IK OR INUPIAQ PEOPLES, ALASKA 19th century or earlier

body is streamlined and forward-leaning — the fox in

Walrus ivory or marine mammal bone

motion, nose down, following a scent with the focused,

Length: 3 in, 7 ½ cm

ground-reading attention that makes the arctic fox such a successful predator on the open tundra. The pointed snout

PROVENANCE

is thrust forward, the tiny eye alert and bright, the ears just

De-accessioned from a museum with old collection numbers

suggested at the crown. Four short legs with minimal toe

Jeffrey Myers, New York

separation give the piece stability when set down without interrupting the flowing horizontal silhouette. And then the tail: departing the haunches in a seamless transition, round

Among the Inuit and Yup’ik peoples, tattooing was a

in section, tapering evenly over its full length to a working

practice of profound social and spiritual significance —

tip that shows the slight wear of use — lighter in tone at

particularly for women, whose facial and body tattoos

the point, the ivory compressed and smoothed by repeated

marked life transitions, signaled status and identity, and

contact with skin.

were understood to guide the spirit after death to the

The material throughout is walrus ivory or large marine

correct realm. The needles used to introduce pigment under

mammal bone — light cream to warm ivory-white, the

the skin were accordingly objects of more than functional

natural grain lines of the material running the full length

importance. A tattooing needle carried the marks it had

of the piece like the suggestion of fur, the surface dry and

made; it participated in the transformations it enabled; and

silky with the particular quality of old ivory that has been

when it was made in the form of a spirit animal, it brought

handled regularly across many years. No decoration was

that animal’s power to the work.

applied. None was needed.

The carver’s insight was simple and exact: the fox’s

In Yup’ik tradition, the fox was associated with

naturally long, tapering tail, held straight behind the

cleverness, with the ability to find what is hidden, with

body in motion, is already a needle — it needs only to be

the capacity to move between states — between the visible

recognized and released from the ivory. The fox’s body

world and the world beneath the snow, between the surface

becomes the handle, the tail becomes the working point,

and what lies under it. A tattooing needle in fox form

and the whole object acquires a logic so complete that it

brought all of this to the act of marking: the fox’s ability to

seems inevitable rather than invented.

find and penetrate, the fox’s knowledge of hidden things,

The fox itself is rendered with the observational precision

applied to the transformation of the human body into a

that the finest Arctic animal carving always achieves

surface that carried meaning. Note that right front leg is

through economy rather than elaboration. The long, low

partially missing.

price $500 aw l o r tat to o n e e d l e i n t h e f o r m o f a f ox

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aw l o r tat to o n e e d l e i n t h e f o r m o f a f ox

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FISHING LURE OR LINE WEIGHT

translated that understanding directly into form.

At the head, two drilled holes accepted the fishing line — their precise placement determining the lure’s tilt in the water, angling the head slightly down so that when jigged,

YUP’IK OR INUPIAQ PEOPLES, ALASKA

the body rose and fell with the nodding motion of a small

18th–19th century

hole provided the attachment point for the hook — a bone

Walrus ivory

or later metal point that would have hung below the tail,

Length: 3 ½ in, 9 cm

concealed by the lure’s realistic profile and ready for the

fish feeding near the bottom. At the tail, a second drilled

strike. This dual-attachment system, with line at head and PROVENANCE

hook at tail, is the canonical Inuit lure configuration, refined

Arthur Gross Collection

over generations of practical testing in the rivers and coastal waters of the Bering Sea region.

The tail is carved with particular care: a fully realized

Ice fishing on the rivers and coastal waters of the Arctic was

forked caudal fin, each lobe rendered with fine parallel

not a passive activity. The fisher sat over a hole chopped

incised lines describing the fin rays with anatomical

through ice that could be several feet thick, lowering a lure

accuracy — the observation of someone who had cleaned

into the dark water below and working it with a practiced

and eaten thousands of fish, who knew exactly how the tail

wrist motion — jigging it up and down, varying the

was structured and translated that knowledge into ivory

rhythm, reading the resistance of the line for the moment

with the confidence of total familiarity. Along the dorsal

when a fish struck. The lure’s effectiveness depended on

surface, a shallow longitudinal groove traces the fish’s spine,

how convincingly it moved through the water, and that

giving the body its three-dimensional realism; fine incised

depended on its form, its weight, its balance, and the precise

lines along the mid-body suggest the lateral line that real

placement of the attachment holes that determined its angle

fish use to sense pressure changes in the water — the organ

and action. A good lure was a precision instrument, and the

of the fish that detects the approach of predators and prey

best were made with the full attention of a skilled carver.

alike, rendered here in miniature on a lure designed to

This fish lure is among the finest examples of the type.

Carved from a single piece of walrus ivory that has aged

attract the very creature it depicts.

The patina is the lure’s most eloquent testimony to its active

to a warm amber-cream stained with the reddish-brown

life. The ivory is stained unevenly — darker along the belly

of long water immersion and sediment contact, the body

and in the carved recesses, lighter on the upper surfaces —

describes a perfect fish silhouette — widest at the middle,

the precise differential that results from repeated immersion

tapering evenly to a pointed head and a forked tail — with

in water carrying silt and organic material, the underside in

a weight and density that would have given it exactly the

greatest contact with the bottom. This is not the patina of

right sink rate and the convincing, slightly nose-down

a kept object but of a used one, worked season after season

swimming angle that fish respond to. The carver understood

through ice holes in rivers and coastal waters until it passed

hydrodynamics from long practical experience, and

out of use and into the long sleep of the collection.

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BELT FASTENER OR TOGGLE IN THE FORM OF A SEAL HEAD PUNUK ISLANDS, ALASKA 18th century or earlier Walrus ivory Length: 1 in, 2 ½ cm PROVENANCE

Dug by Jason Iya on the Punuk Islands

rectangular bridge rises from the seal’s back, its transverse slot cut cleanly through to accept a thong or lashing. This is a toggle — a fastener and amulet simultaneously, the two

The smallest objects in the Arctic artistic tradition are often

functions inseparable in the Inuit and Yup’ik understanding

the most charged. In a world where every possession had

of useful objects. Toggles of this kind secured the closures

to justify its weight and every material had to be worked by

of hunting bags, clothing, and equipment; they were also

hand in conditions of extreme cold, a carving of one inch in

among the most personal of amulets, the animal carved

walrus ivory — perfect in form, complete in detail, resolved

onto or into the toggle lending its yua — its inner spirit —

in expression — represents an investment of time, skill, and

to the person who carried it. A seal toggle on a hunter’s bag

attention that speaks directly to the object’s importance.

was not decorative. It was an invitation to the seal spirit, a

This was not made casually.

gesture of respect and connection that acknowledged the

This miniature seal is carved from a single piece of old walrus ivory that has aged to a deep, warm amber — the

animal’s willingness to be taken and asked for its continued cooperation.

color of ivory that has spent long years in close contact

The seal — puiji in Inuktitut — was the foundation

with human skin, carried in a pocket or pouch or worn

of Arctic survival: food, fuel, clothing, and line all came

against the body on a thong. The surface is polished to a

from its body. To carry a seal in miniature was to carry the

high sheen by handling rather than tool, the natural flecking

relationship itself, compressed into ivory and worn close.

and spotting of the ivory matrix visible across the rounded

surfaces — the precise differential that results from

body like the dappled markings of a ringed seal’s pelt. The

repeated immersion in water carrying silt and organic

carver has rendered the animal with complete anatomical

material, the underside in greatest contact with the bottom.

fidelity and absolute economy: the full, rounded body, the

This is not the patina of a kept object but of a used one,

raised and slightly turned head, the projecting fore-flipper

worked season after season through ice holes in rivers and

— everything necessary, nothing extraneous.

coastal waters until it passed out of use and into the long

The function is revealed on the dorsal surface: a carved

sleep of the collection.

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SNUFF CONTAINER ISHUNGU ZULU PEOPLES, KWAZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA Late 19th / early 20th century Wood Diam.: 1 in, 2 ½ cm PROVENANCE

Estate of Paul Walter. Walter was a New York-based collector and

like this one — were made with the full technical ambition

connoisseur who bought his first works — prints by the artist James

of the Zulu carving tradition applied to the smallest possible

McNeill Whistler — while attending Oberlin College in Ohio, and

scale.

later obsessively collected all manner of objects, from Raj-era silver

The form is the large ukhamba beer vessel translated

and Mughal miniatures to architectural drawings and art from many

into miniature with total fidelity: the same near-perfect

eras. Walter’s father had invented the electric igniter for gas cookers

spherical body, the same small cylindrical neck, the same

and, after becoming chief executive of his family’s electronics firm

commanding geometric surface program — all compressed

in 1968, he travelled frequently to European antiques markets and

to an object that fits in a closed fist. The parallel is not

London’s auction houses. His collection of African non-figurative

accidental. The ukhamba and the ishungu share a formal

objects was donated to the Yale University Art Gallery.

language because they share a social one: both are vessels of offering, of exchange, of the careful transfer of substance between people and between the living and the ancestral

To hold this vessel is to hold a complete world in compressed

world. To make the snuff container in the image of the

form. The ishungu — the Zulu snuff container — is among

beer vessel was to carry the full weight of that tradition in

the most formally resolved object types in the entire southern

something small enough to slip into a pocket.

African decorative tradition: a sphere so nearly perfect that

The surface is organized by bold raised dividing bands

it reads as a geometric absolute, its surface so densely and

that cross the sphere in a structural X, partitioning the body

precisely worked that every square centimeter is a considered

into distinct decorative panels each filled with a different

decision, its function so intimate that it was carried on or

but related geometric vocabulary. Tightly packed diagonal

near the body for years, decades, a lifetime.

parallel lines fill the large lower panels — the fundamental

Snuff (ugwayi) was central to Zulu social and spiritual life

Zulu incised line register, executed here with a precision

— offered to ancestors at the beginning of ritual, exchanged

and consistency that speaks to a carver of considerable

as a gesture of respect between individuals, carried always

experience. The amasumpa nodule field — those small

by those of status and years. The container that held it was

raised warts or bumps that appear across Zulu prestige

accordingly an object of prestige, and the finest examples —

objects from headrests to staffs to the finest ceremonial

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vessels — occupies its own panel to one side, each nodule

The wood — dense, dark, carbonized — has aged to a

placed with even spacing in a regular grid. In the upper

surface of deep matte black that reveals its warm reddish-

zone flanking the neck, triangular panels carry radiating

brown interior only in the incised channels and between the

fan-line registers that echo the converging geometry of the

nodules, the two tones working together to describe form

dividing bands. The shoulder and neck darken to near-black

and decoration simultaneously. It is a surface that repays

— the accumulated evidence of handling at the object’s

close attention: what reads from a distance as an almost

most-touched point, where the stopper was removed and

uniformly dark sphere resolves at close range into a field of

replaced, where fingers rested while the container was

extraordinary textural richness.

opened and offered.

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THREE FISH HOOKS SOLOMON ISLANDS AND HAWAII Late 19th / early 20th century Shell, bone Height: ½ in (smallest) 1 in (largest), 1 ¼ cm (smallest) 2 ½ cm (largest) PROVENANCE

UK private collection

Three Fishhooks: Two Hawaiian (Makau) and One Solomon Islands Shell Hook

sharply defined barb spur at the top, the body sweeping in

The fishhook is one of humanity’s oldest and most universal

the gap. The larger of the two has a fuller, more open curve

tools — present in every culture that lived near water,

and a slightly more sinuous shank — the individuality of

adapted to every ocean’s particular fish, current, and

handwork within a shared form — while the smaller is

depth with the precision that survival demands. But in the

tighter and more compressed, every element scaled down

Pacific, where the sea was not a boundary but a highway,

without loss of resolution.

the fishhook was also something more: a technology

a generous arc to a pointed tip that curves inward to close

Both are carved from bone — the material worked to

refined over millennia of open-ocean navigation, a form so

a smooth, close surface that has aged to warm cream, the

successfully resolved that the finest examples achieve the

dense grain of the animal material providing its own subtle

visual authority of pure sculpture, and an object sufficiently

texture. At this scale — bait hooks, small enough to target

valued that the best hooks were named, inherited, and

the reef and nearshore fish that were taken in quantity for

offered to the gods before important fishing expeditions.

daily use and for the larger trolling rigs that pursued ahi

The Two Hawaiian Hooks (Makau)

and mahimahi in open water — the precision of the barb placement is remarkable: each spur exactly positioned to

The Hawaiian makau is among the most distinctive

allow easy entry and prevent escape, the functional logic of

fishhook forms in the Pacific — its tall, nearly vertical

the form thoroughly understood and faithfully executed.

shank, tight circular body curve, and precisely placed

In Hawaiian tradition the makau carried meaning beyond

inward barb creating a silhouette that is instantly

its practical function. Hook-shaped pendants in whale

recognizable and formally unlike any other tradition’s

ivory and other precious materials were among the most

hooks. Both examples here follow this canonical form

significant personal ornaments in the chiefly repertoire; the

with fidelity: the long shank ascending to a small but

hook form itself was associated with the demigod Māui,

price $500 for the group of three three fish hooks

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who fished up the Hawaiian islands from the ocean floor

functional gap. A small notch at the shank’s upper tip

with a magical hook made from his grandmother’s jawbone.

accepted the fishing line.

To carry a hook, to make a hook, to fish with a hook well — all were acts that participated in a cosmological narrative

the Solomon Islands and across Melanesia, shell was a

older than memory.

substance of exchange value and social significance, used

The Solomon Islands Shell Hook

for currency, ornament, and prestige objects as well as for tools. A hook cut from Trochus or large oyster shell was an

The third hook speaks an entirely different formal language.

object in a web of meanings that extended well beyond the

Cut from a single piece of Pacific shell — Trochus or large

fishing grounds. The V-form’s rotating action when a fish

bivalve, its layered, iridescent interior surface visible along

struck — the two arms pivoting against each other — was a

the inner faces — this is a V-form or rotating hook of

functional refinement suited to the fast-striking pelagic fish

the type characteristic of the Solomon Islands and wider

of the Coral Sea.

Melanesian fishing tradition. Where the Hawaiian hooks

Presented together, these three hooks compress an entire

are carved from bone in a single continuous curve, this

Pacific fishing world into a few inches of bone and shell: two

hook is cut from flat shell plate into a two-armed form: a

traditions, two oceans, two formal solutions to the same

longer curved shank on the right terminating in an inward

ancient problem, each one perfect within its own logic.

barb, and a shorter inner arm on the left creating the hook’s

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The shell material was not merely practical — throughout

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GOLDWEIGHT OF A QUADRUPED AKAN PEOPLE, GHANA/IVORY COAST Cast copper alloy (brass) Late 19th century Length: 2 ½ in, 6 cm PROVENANCE

Irena Corwin. Irena Corwin was a ballet dancer and actress who later became a jewelry designer in New York in the 1960s and 1970s.

A boldly modeled figurative goldweight (abrammuo) in the form of a four-legged animal — most plausibly a ram, given the rounded, bulbous head, curling horn-like protrusion, and compact, muscular body — rendered in the schematic, energetically abstracted manner characteristic of late-period Akan figural casting. The piece shows the naturalistic economy typical of Akan animal weights: four splayed legs with rounded hooves, a strong arching back, and a tail extended rearward as a counterbalance. Vivid blue-green verdigris patina pools in the recessed areas between the legs and along the spine, contrasting richly with the warm golden-brown of the high relief surfaces. Cast using the lost-wax technique, these figurative weights served both as practical instruments for measuring gold dust in trade transactions and as culturally encoded objects embodying Akan proverbs and moral principles. Figurative weights of this kind first appear around 1600 ad, and many symbolize well-known proverbs, riddles, and codes of conduct central to Akan cultural life.

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GOLDWEIGHT OF A DUNG BEETLE AKAN PEOPLE, GHANA/IVORY COAST Cast copper alloy (brass) Late 19th / early 20th century Length: 2 in, 5 cm PROVENANCE

Irena Corwin. Irena Corwin was a ballet dancer and actress who later became a jewelry designer in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. She went to Europe to acquire objects to incorporate into her jewelry.

An exceptionally detailed goldweight in the form of a large beetle — likely a dung beetle or ground beetle (Scarabaeidae or related family) — naturalistically rendered with a domed, longitudinally ribbed elytra (wing case), a broad pronotal shield, articulated head with visible mandibles, and stubby legs. The base shows a secondary face or figural element on the ventral side, suggesting this may have served a dual symbolic function. Insect goldweights of this kind were often cast directly from nature: the dried insect was embedded in clay with a wax sprue attached, then fired until the insect’s body burned away entirely, leaving a hollow void into which molten metal was poured — an extraordinarily direct form of nature casting. The surface carries a rich, layered patina of deep brown and malachite green, consistent with age and use. The ribbed detailing on the elytra is rendered with remarkable fidelity. In Akan and related societies, organic forms in goldweights recall the dialogue between humanity and nature, and the choice of animal was rarely arbitrary — each shape was intentional, often encoding a proverb or moral lesson.

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GOLDWEIGHT OF A HORNBILL AKAN PEOPLE, GHANA/IVORY COAST Cast copper alloy (brass) Late 19th / early 20th century Height: 2 ½ in, 6 cm PROVENANCE

Irena Corwin. Irena Corwin was a ballet dancer and actress who

ovoid silhouette that is satisfying from every angle. The

later became a jewelry designer in New York in the 1960s and

long, downward-curving beak is the hornbill’s defining

1970s. She went to Europe to acquire objects to incorporate into

feature and the source of its proverb: in Akan tradition, the

her jewelry.

hornbill was associated with patience, foresight, and the willingness to look downward — to attend carefully to what lies beneath the surface of things. A trader who used this

Among the Akan-speaking peoples of Ghana and Côte

weight signaled something about how he understood his

d’Ivoire, the system of brass goldweights — abrammuo

own practice.

— was one of the most sophisticated and culturally rich

The neck and body carry fine incised or cast linear

material systems ever devised for the measurement and

decoration rendering the feathering with naturalistic

exchange of gold dust. In use from at least the fourteenth

delicacy — a level of surface attention that goes well beyond

century until the colonial disruption of the gold trade in

functional necessity and speaks to a maker who took

the late nineteenth, these small cast-brass objects were the

pleasure in the full resolution of form. A tiny raised boss

instruments of commerce and the repositories of proverbial

with a drilled center serves as the eye — minimal, precise,

wisdom simultaneously: every weight had a meaning,

and entirely alive. Below the body, a stepped three-tiered

and many were made in the form of animals, objects, and

square plinth — cast as part of the single lost-wax pour —

human figures whose visual identity encoded a specific

elevates the bird with the same architectural dignity given to

saying or moral precept that both parties to a transaction

prestige objects across the Akan world.

were expected to understand.

This hornbill weight is cast with the formal intelligence

The patina is deep and even: a warm dark brown with traces of verdigris in the deepest recesses of the incised

and sculptural confidence that distinguishes the finest Akan

decoration, the surface of old brass that has spent long years

bronzes from the merely competent. The bird’s long neck

in use and handling. The casting itself is crisp and clean —

sweeps upward from the compact body in a full, graceful

evidence of a skilled founder working within a tradition that

arc — curving back over itself so that head and beak face

had refined the lost-wax process to a high art across many

forward and down, the whole form contained within an

generations.

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GOLDWEIGHT OF A ROOSTER AKAN PEOPLE, GHANA/IVORY COAST Cast copper alloy (brass) Late 19th / early 20th century Height: 2 in, 5 cm PROVENANCE

Irena Corwin. Irena Corwin was a ballet dancer and actress who later became a jewelry designer in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. She went to Europe to acquire objects to incorporate into her jewelry.

The rooster (kokoo) was one of the most symbolically loaded

cascade of parallel ridges, each feather a bold raised rib that

birds in the Akan proverbial universe, and among the

catches light along its full length.

most frequently rendered in brass. Its crow announces the

The neck is the casting’s most inventive element:

dawn before the sun is visible — a proclamation of what is

encircled from base to head by a series of tightly spaced

coming before it arrives. The Akan proverb most commonly

horizontal coils that give it the appearance of a spirally

associated with the rooster weight encodes this precisely:

wound collar — a treatment that transforms the bird’s

Kokoo — the rooster crows not because it has seen the sun,

anatomy into something simultaneously naturalistic and

but because it knows the sun is coming. A trader who placed

formally abstracted, suggesting both the physical neck and

this weight on the scale communicated something about his

the idea of ornament, of prestige marking, of a bird that

own nature: that he acts on knowledge and foresight, not

wears its status visibly. At the junction of neck and body, a

merely on what is already obvious to everyone.

bold scroll or volute anchors the composition at its center

This rooster weight is among the most fully realized

of gravity. The eye is a raised spherical boss set within a cast

examples of the form. The bird stands in a posture of full

ring — a small but exact detail that gives the face its alert,

alert display — chest forward, head raised, tail swept high

watchful quality.

— cast with a confident understanding of the animal’s

The base is an irregular oval plinth, textured to suggest

essential gesture that goes well beyond mere identification.

ground, the feet clearly articulated with individual toes

The serrated comb erupts from the crown in a bold

gripping the earth — the rooster not posed but planted,

starburst of points; the beak projects forward at the precise

present, occupying its territory with the assurance of the

angle of a bird in mid-crow; the fanned tail rises in a

proverb it embodies.

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The patina is exceptional and has developed over a long period into a rich two-tone surface: warm golden brass glowing on every raised ridge, every coil, every feather tip and comb point — the metal burnished by handling to its original color — while deep verdigris green has settled into the recesses and body surfaces, the natural oxidation of old brass in a humid tropical environment. The contrast between gold and green gives the weight the visual complexity of a painting, the two tones working together to describe form and depth simultaneously.

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GOLDWEIGHT OF A MONITOR LIZARD AKAN PEOPLE, GHANA/IVORY COAST

the animal’s characteristic blunt-nosed calm, two large hemispherical eyes set laterally on the skull exactly as

Cast copper alloy (brass)

anatomy demands, flanking a closed, composed mouth.

Late 19th / early 20th century

This is not a threatening animal but a watching one —

Length: 2 in, 5 cm

present, patient, taking the full measure of its surroundings before committing to any movement.

PROVENANCE

Across the body and continuing up the length of the

Irena Corwin. Irena Corwin was a ballet dancer and actress who

sweeping tail, raised spiral bosses punctuate the surface at

later became a jewelry designer in New York in the 1960s and

organic intervals — six or more on the body, three or four

1970s. She went to Europe to acquire objects to incorporate into

on the tail arc — each a tightly wound concentric coil that

her jewelry.

describes simultaneously the monitor’s scaled, textured skin and the deeper Akan symbolic vocabulary of the spiral: cyclical time, the coiling python, the life force that returns

The monitor lizard — the great Varanus niloticus of the

to its own beginning. Between the bosses, the body surface

West and Central African riverbanks and forest margins

is worked in a fine granular texture that provides a warm,

— was a creature that occupied an uneasy place in the

matte ground against which the polished spirals read with

Akan imagination. Large, deliberate, armored, and ancient-

crisp golden clarity.

seeming, the monitor moved between water and land with

The tail is this weight’s most distinctive formal feature,

the unhurried assurance of an animal that has no natural

differentiating it clearly from the crocodilian type. Where

predators of consequence. It was associated in Akan

the crocodile’s tail curls tightly back over its own body

proverbial thought with patience, with the careful survey

in a contained arc, this monitor’s tail sweeps upward in a

of terrain before action, and — through its name’s phonetic

broader, more open curve — reaching for height rather than

proximity to owuo, death — with the crossing of thresholds

containment, the arc generous and self-assured. Additional

that cannot be uncrossed. A weight in this form carried

spiral bosses punctuate the tail’s length, and a rounded

weight in more than the literal sense.

terminal knob closes the composition at the apex. The result

This monitor lizard is cast with a keen observational fidelity to the animal’s essential character. The body is compact and powerfully cylindrical, raised on four

is a silhouette that reads from across a room: horizontal body, vertical tail, the two axes in dynamic tension.

The patina is a warm, even golden brass — the metal

substantial columnar legs that give the creature a

enriched by years of handling to a tone that reads in

convincingly terrestrial, ground-owning posture — the

certain lights as almost honey-colored, the textured ground

monitor’s characteristic deliberate stride, each foot placed

darkening to provide relief and depth against the polished

with intention. The wide, flat head is turned forward with

high surfaces.

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ART AND ANTIQUES FROM AFRICA, OCEANIA AND THE AMERICAS

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