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Lot Essay
Cf. Coe, R.T., Sacred Circles, London, 1976, p.149, no.345, for a similar spear thrower in the Denver Museum of Art, attributed to the northern Tlingit. Another was sold at Christie's London on 8 December 1992 as lot 153.
Bill Holm (Holm and Reid, Form and Freedom, Houston, 1975, pp.62-63) discussing the spear-thrower in the Menil collections states: My guess is that it comes from the westernmost Tlingit. Maybe even outside the true Tlingit area, as far as Prince William Sound, getting over to the Chugach country where Aleut and Northwest Coast traditions overlap. Spear-throwers aren't common on the true Northwest Coast. I know of only three or four. All have strange things in them which, to me, suggest the fringes of the basic culture area.
Bill Holm (Holm and Reid, Form and Freedom, Houston, 1975, pp.62-63) discussing the spear-thrower in the Menil collections states: My guess is that it comes from the westernmost Tlingit. Maybe even outside the true Tlingit area, as far as Prince William Sound, getting over to the Chugach country where Aleut and Northwest Coast traditions overlap. Spear-throwers aren't common on the true Northwest Coast. I know of only three or four. All have strange things in them which, to me, suggest the fringes of the basic culture area.