AN ESKIMO HOODED GUTSKIN CEREMONIAL PARKA Probably St. Lawrence Island

Property from the Collection of Continental Insurance Corporation

Details

AN ESKIMO HOODED GUTSKIN CEREMONIAL PARKA Probably St. Lawrence Island

Panels of cleaned walrus intestines sewn together, some seams covered with bird feathers, adorned orange bird beaks and bird feathers on darkened stir strips, edges with white fur
61½in. (1.56m.) width across the arms

Provenance

Sotheby's New York, Dec. 1993, lot 209.

Lot Essay

This parka is said to have been collected around 1890.
A similar example in the National Museum of Natural History (T1-1676) was published by Fitzhugh and Kaplan (1988, p. 221) and was collected by Henry Collins, 1930, from Gambell Village, St. Lawrence Island. These "beautiful gutskin garments" were made from inflated walrus intestine which was dried and bleached by the elements. The seamstress then sewed strips of the dried intestine and adorned it with auklet beaks and feathers.