48171

Eskimo Arrow Straightener

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:375.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,500.00 USD
Eskimo Arrow Straightener
<B>Eskimo Arrow Straightener</B></I><BR>Circa 1880<BR>Length 9 in. Width 1 3/4 in.<BR><BR>"The arrowshaft straightener is a vital implement in a hunter's tool kit, and is used to straighten the wooden shafts of arrows used to hunt caribou, birds, and fish. Arrowshaft straighteners are usually made out of tough fossil ivory which is found eroding out of thawing permafrost banks." This carved bone example depicts a swimming polar bear. (For related examples see: Hoffman, Walter, "The Graphic Art of the Eskimos", <I>Smithsonian Institution Annual Report for 1895,</B></I> Washington, D.C., 1897, Plates 7 and 8.)<BR><BR>Provenance<BR>Merrill Domas, Old Chatham, New York.<BR><BR>Reference<BR>Fitzhugh, William and Kaplan, Susan, <I>Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo,</B></I> Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1982, p. 56.<BR><BR> <BR><BR><B>Important noti