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Details
A TLINGIT STEEL AND MOUNTAIN SHEEP HORN DAGGER
composed of slightly convex tapering steel blade with flattened mid-rib surmounted by brass guard and inset into a wood grip tightly bound with leather thong, pommel of mountain sheep horn carved in the form of a bear's head in profile featuring finely carved oval-pointed eyes with abalone pupils underneath arching brows, a wide nose with flaring nostrils, and a broad mouth with lips parted, exposing abalone teeth, rich red-brown patina, inscribed in white paint, 4/3125
Length: 14½ in. (36.8 cm.)
composed of slightly convex tapering steel blade with flattened mid-rib surmounted by brass guard and inset into a wood grip tightly bound with leather thong, pommel of mountain sheep horn carved in the form of a bear's head in profile featuring finely carved oval-pointed eyes with abalone pupils underneath arching brows, a wide nose with flaring nostrils, and a broad mouth with lips parted, exposing abalone teeth, rich red-brown patina, inscribed in white paint, 4/3125
Length: 14½ in. (36.8 cm.)
Provenance
Ex-collection: Heye Foundation
Parke-Bernet January 31, 1970, lot 19
Parke-Bernet January 31, 1970, lot 19
Further details
Archaelogical evidence confirms the presence of ferrous blades on the Northwest Coast long before the arrival of Euroamericans in the late 18th century. This iron must have been salvaged from Asian shipwrecks which drifted onto northern Pacific shores. The journals of the Spanish explorer Perez (1774) note a limited distribution of iron daggers among the Haida. By 1791, Joseph Ingraham, a Boston based sea otter fur trader observed that all Haida males carried an iron dagger suspended in a leather sheath around the neck. Ingraham had his smith make finely wrought daggers for a return visit to the coast in 1792 but these were disdained by the Haida, who, by then, had a surfeit of iron knives.
Tlingit oral traditions recount that elaborate single-piece iron daggers were fashioned in pre-contact times, the most celebrated of which were made by a woman in Chilkat country. Examples with intricately crafted pommels and fluted blades, attributed to her, are made from a single piece of iron. Composite examples with decorated pommels made of ivory, wood and mountain sheep horn appear in the early 19th century. The most elaborate and storied daggers are revered clan treasures with their own names, histories, and mystique, and are handed down from one generation to the next.
Jay Stewart
Peter MacNair
March 1, 2002
Tlingit oral traditions recount that elaborate single-piece iron daggers were fashioned in pre-contact times, the most celebrated of which were made by a woman in Chilkat country. Examples with intricately crafted pommels and fluted blades, attributed to her, are made from a single piece of iron. Composite examples with decorated pommels made of ivory, wood and mountain sheep horn appear in the early 19th century. The most elaborate and storied daggers are revered clan treasures with their own names, histories, and mystique, and are handed down from one generation to the next.
Jay Stewart
Peter MacNair
March 1, 2002