Comb with an anthropomorphic figure, Culture... - Lot 8 - Giquello

Lot 8
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Estimation :
20000 - 30000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 18 720EUR
Comb with an anthropomorphic figure, Culture... - Lot 8 - Giquello
Comb with an anthropomorphic figure, Culture Old Bering Sea II/III, St Lawrence Island, Bering Strait, Alaska Archaic Eskimo, 100 - 500 A.D.C. Marine ivory H. 9 cm Comb with an anthropomorphic figure, Old Bering Sea II/III, St Lawrence Island, Bering Strait, Alaska H. 3 ½ in 20,000/30,000 Provenance: - Collected at the site of Ivetok on St Lawrence Island, Alaska in June 2004 - Collection Jason Noogwook, Savoonga, Alaska - Collection Bill & Carol Wolf, New Jersey - Collection Donald Ellis, Canada - Former private collection, France Publication: - Donald Ellis, Art of the Arctic: Reflections of the Unseen, Black Dog Press, London 2015, pp. 41, plate 30 This archaic Eskimo sculpture with remarkable ornamentation and sensitivity depicts a human figure. Despite the distance and the centuries that separate them, the parallel with the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti is striking here. Finely incised geometric patterns adorn the torso and back of the figure. The face is intensely expressive and uncluttered at the same time. The lower end of the sculpture is in the form of a comb with a few remaining teeth. This ritual figure was also used for utilitarian purposes for smoothing and preparing the furs and skins of prey captured during the hunt. For the archaic civilizations of St. Lawrence Island (Okvik, Old Bering Sea and then Punuk cultures, between 250 BC and 1200 AD), daily life was centered around the hunting of bears and marine mammals, which were very abundant in the Bering Sea. Dances and ceremonies were held to ensure that the hunt was successful, and thus the survival of the village. According to William Fitzhugh (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution) and Bryan Just (Princeton University Art Museum) in Gifts from the Ancestors, Ancient Ivories of Bering Sea (Princeton, 2009), "the careful attention to the design, execution, and decoration of the elements of material culture established a mutual responsibility and reciprocity between human beings and their spirit guides. Particular attention was paid to hunting-related items, including ornamentation. Alaskan people believed that the spirits of marine mammals were grateful to hunters who approached them in a respectful manner. Hunters and their families were expected to honor the spirits ruling over the animals in order to maintain the balance and harmony of the world." There is a grace and mystery that transcends time and space in this sculpture extracted from the Arctic ice.
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