Northwest Coast Art in the British Museum | Part I
Northwest Coast Art in the British Museum
Part I
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
This month, Art of the Ancestors features items from the British Museum originating from the Northwest coast region of Canada (British Columbia) to the United States (from the State of Washington to southern Alaska).
The Northwest Coast peoples are renowned for their rich cultural heritage and unique traditions. Each group has a deep connection to the environment, often with the sea, which provides abundant resources such as salmon, shellfish, and other marine life. As one who lives amid this bounty, I like to think that the salmon and the cycle of life are such that their atoms run through most living things here. It is in this region where remarkable chains of interlinked animal life, giant forests, and a general abundance reign over the land, making it ideal for human stewardship. It was amid such a landscape that traditional groups developed and cultivated their unique mythologies, ritual practices, and diverse art forms over a long period.
Their social structures were often organized into "houses" or clans with a hierarchical class system composed of nobles, commoners, and enslaved people. Among the Northwest coast peoples, the Haida, Tshimsian, Tlingit, Nuxalt, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, Coastal Salish, and to the south, the Makah residing in Washington State, all performed versions of Potlatch ceremonies.
Potlatching entails feast-giving accompanied by giving away, displaying, and even destroying vast quantities of wealth. For the giver, this provided new titles and greater prestige while reaffirming old alliances. As with traditional noble societies in Indonesia and other locales, a person's wealth and status as a 'big man' is marked by the lavishness and the spirit of their gifts to others. This is real money in the bank. Most importantly, a Potlatch glorified the feast giver, his clan, family, and their connections to the supernatural. Prior to European colonization, gifting among mighty aristocrats might include storable dried foodstuffs, oolichan (the highly prized preserved oil of the candlefish), blankets, canoes, enslaved people, and ornamental beaten sheets known as coppers.
A house's or clan's totemic identity is also intertwined or associated with animal beings: The eagle, salmon, raven, frog, crow, beaver, wolf or killer whale, etc. Teachers and keepers of myths and diverse animals populate their creations. They cohabitate with humans in ways that foster identity and status while seamlessly merging and negotiating the divide between the natural and supernatural world. Potlatching most often occurred during the winter seasons (as opposed to warmer months). These ceremonies were also employed for coming-of-age rituals, events of passage, and naming ceremonies.
On a grand scale, clan associations are visible in the well-decorated and marvelously constructed plank houses of the Northwest Coast. Houses were generally crafted from cedar, western red cedar to be more exact, that was thick, hardy, yet pliant while being rot resistant. Perhaps to an outsider's imagination, the single most spectacular items of scale are the great memorial or heraldic totem poles, ubiquitously associated with some Northwest Coast peoples. Poles were used in a variety of ways: as symbols of ownership, memorialization, or for mortuary purposes; as portal poles or house posts; and in promenade and waterfront areas surrounding a great structure. It is mind-boggling to think that the tallest standing carved pole today is a 173-foot tall one at Alert Bay on Vancouver Island. While of highly varying lengths, older poles could often approximate or exceed 60 feet in height. They showcase a nation's territory, a family's, or an individual's history by demonstrating their title to the land. They also put on display their rights to certain songs, dances, and other cultural gestures that celebrate stories in three-dimensional form
This initial offering showcases twenty-one objects from the British Museum's collection, ranging from figurative pieces to items of personal use, shamanic paraphernalia, clan treasures of identity, and ceremonial invocation. Three figures are illustrated. The first was collected at Restoration Point in 1792 by George Vancouver while he was surveying Puget Sound in what is today the State of Washington. It is a classic statue of the Suquamish people. The second is a compelling Nuu-chah-nulth figure of a mother and child, ex-Captain Cook (1778), ex-Leverian Museum, and ex-Christy Collection, that was most likely acquired on Cook's last voyage. The third item is a prominent figure with beaten copper-sheathed eyes, lips, and nostrils, also from the Christy collection. In museum notes, it was originally described as "an Alaskan god" displayed in the "City Bank Saloon" in old San Francisco, where it was said to beckon would-be patrons while encouraging them to have a drink at the bar. In fact, it most likely was made for trade.
Many might associate pipes and smoking tobacco with Europeans. However, the archaeological record establishes that Northwest Coast peoples used tobacco centuries before the arrival of the Europeans. Two gorgeous pipes are illustrated. The first is one of my favorite petite items. It is carved from light, well-grained, but strong ash wood and lined with copper. Like a baby bird in the nest craving food from its mother, the open-beaked form of this pipe is compelling by any standards. The second pipe bowl is most likely of Tlingit origin (ex-Oldman Collection). It is also well handled and crafted with inlays of abalone shell. Its form combines the shape of a European pipe with that of a communicative wolf.
In addition to wood, there are items ranging in materials from a ca. 1850 Tlingit frontlet in copper resembling a shark to stone implements that include a figurative ceremonial adze to a well-known Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) implement known as a 'slave-killer' or 'copper breaker' at Potlatches (after it was no longer possible to execute enslaved people.) Fashioned from gray basaltic stone, this classic item was collected at Fort Rupert (Vancouver Island). In the realm of weaponry, there's a fine Nuu-chah-nulth whalebone club collected before 1796, as well as a remarkable woven, painted cloak acquired during one of Cook's voyages. This robe is significant not only for its early collection date but also for the virtuosity of its combination of materials, including pounded cedar root and bark, nettle fiber, sea otter fur, mountain goat wool, and natural ochres.
Artistic observation and excellence abound no matter the scale or choice of materials employed. Take something in miniature, such as a grip from the handle of a 19th-century fighting dagger fashioned from walrus ivory with gorgeous shell inlays. (no.18) The design depicts a raven and a human figure with perhaps a bear under the bird's beak. The balance within the composition, as with many of the items illustrated here, perfectly merges form, function, and beauty at an exquisite level. Nothing represents this more than the finest handles for ceremonial ladles and spoons. Think of giant totem poles reduced to miniature size, where totemic and consanguineous imagery and stories merge. Here, a long grip fashioned from mountain goat horn reigns supreme with its lustrous, translucent patina, bold and effective designs that are perfectly engineered and structurally designed, and sublime architecture in miniature. Two masters, Bill Holm and Bill Reid, best described the significance of Northwest Coast spoons in "Form and Freedom: A Dialogue on Northwest Coast Indian Art," where Holm referred to these ceremonial spoons as the "family silver of the Northwest Coast nobility," emphasizing their cultural significance as well as the histories inscribed on them.
From Potlatching to feasting, from shaman's rattles to extraordinary masks, many of the items illustrated here are of supreme quality, similar to what one might find at Museo de América in Madrid or the Kunstkamera Museum in St. Petersburg, early, often remarkable examples of each genre. Two very different but beautifully fashioned noble bowls are featured. The first is a well-known item collected by Captain Cook. It dates to the 18th century or earlier. The bowl is wonderfully carved from alder wood and depicts two prominent figures extending their arms around the bowl and touching hands while their gazes loom skyward. The second is a grease bowl for food-dipping in the form of a perfectly carved kneeling supine figure presenting itself and its contents. Described as a "messing bowl" in 1789, it was collected by Captain George Dixon, who accompanied Cook on his third voyage to the Pacific. Later, Dixon became a protégée of Sir Joseph Banks, who gifted this bowl to the British Museum. In the 1780s, Dixon sailed several times to the region for purposes of trade.
Three beautiful rattles are illustrated. Round or globular rattles are items that are often associated with Northwest Coast peoples and their traditional culture(s). Rattles were the property of shamans, who used them to call, mediate, and propitiate the spirit world during curing ceremonies, sweat lodge rituals, and invoking community song and personal reflection. They can be evocatively simple or highly complex, but they are always employed as part of the connective means by which a shaman can pass from the realm of the living to the spirit world. The first rattle is a highly complex Tlingit one known as an 'oyster-catcher' (owing to its overall likeness to a large coastal bird of prey) that was used for divination and healing. Intertwined on the back of the bird are a frog and the head of a mountain goat, all aiding a powerful shaman who is in the act of defeating and binding up a witch after a victorious spiritual battle. Two other rounded rattles are shown that are most likely of Haida or Tshimsian origin. Each depicts a human face, with the reverse half inscribed with totemic designs. These rattles demonstrate the shaman's connectivity to the netherworld, transformational prowess, and his own personal accumulation of spiritual power.
The masking traditions among the peoples of the Northwest Coast Nations are among the most diverse and richest in content and beauty known. Masks can be naturalistic portraits, mostly from northern groups, or astonishingly articulated and complex, such as the transformation masks of the Kwakwaka'wakw. The range is so broad that a whole article on the museum's holdings of masks is justified. For this maiden voyage, just two masks are imaged. The first is a famous Nuu-chah-nulth mask that is said to have been collected on one of Cook's voyages, most likely during his 1778 visit to Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island. It breathes with projected intent owing to the carver's masterful skills that harmoniously combine materials ranging from carved cedar wood, skin, and human hair to applied spruce gum and bark fiber. The second mask is ex-Oldman collection and is listed in museum notes as most likely being of Haida origin. It's a classic 19th-century mask of delicate artistry made all the more theatrical with its applied leather mustache, eyebrows, and mobile fluttering eyelids.
Mask-like headgear also adorned early war helmets and diverse carved wooden frontlets that were used to represent mythological figures or clan crests. The latter were worn during important occasions, such as potlatches, and served to celebrate clan status and one's family lineage. Creativity here was boundless, as were the decorative materials that were added to masks, helmets, and frontlets that might be further adorned with abalone, opercula, sea lion whiskers, animal fur, etc. There's a fine complex 18th-century Tlingit frontlet that projects the double visage of a human and a bear's face. The museum's appended curatorial notes suggest that Frederick Beechey most likely collected this item on HMS Blossom during the 1820s. Its frame or armature is most interesting, too, as it was fashioned from whale baleen that was then wrapped in pounded bark cloth of unknown Pacific origin and early trade twine. The desire for the acquisition of exotic goods for trade and the employment of new technologies are themes repeatedly encountered when apprising Northwest Coast material.
Lastly, what is more fitting than presenting a magnificent ca. 1820s bentwood chest? Such a lavishly and precisely carved box was once kept by a noble for storing his ceremonial paraphernalia. This chest is flawlessly crafted and carved, with its central figure being enveloped or mothered by a bear with raised arms. The figures are further surrounded by ravens in profile. It is most likely of Haida origin. Bentwood boxes, like feasting spoons and ladles, required a specific technology and a grand knowledge of the material being employed.
The British Museum stewards over 2,500 items online from diverse Pacific Northwest coast nations. Many of the items are of such superlative quality that we intend to continue this series in future editions of Art of the Ancestors. We are grateful to the British Museum for their organization and presentation of these artworks that collectively enchant and stimulate us with their verve, immense virtuosity, and inherent intelligence.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Standing Figure
Early 18th century
Made by Northwest Coast peoples
Wood, glass, human hair, leather
Field Collection by George Goodman Hewett
Collected on George Vancouver's voyage to Hawaii and the NW coast of North America 1791-1795
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks in 1891
Am,VAN.160
2
Woman and Child
Before 1778
Made by Nuu-chah-nulth
Wood
Field Collection by Levarian Museum, Captain James Cook?
Donated by Henry Christy in 1801-1900
Am,NWC.62
3
Human Figure
Made by Northwest Coast peoples
Wood, copper
Donated by Fleetwood Sandeman in 1877
Am,+.202
4
Robe / Cloak / Ceremonial Blanket
Before 1800
Made by Nuu-chah-nulth
Cedar bark, nettle fiber, sea otter fur, mountain goat wool, cedar root
Acquired from Captain James Cook in 1753-1800
Am,NWC.53
5
Mask
Made by Northwest Coast peoples
Copper
Donated by Henry J Gardiner in 1910
Am1910,0608.1
6
Club
Before 1795
Made by Nuu-chah-nulth
Whalebone, haliotis shell, spruce gum, fiber
Field Collection by Archibald Menzies
Collected on George Vancouver’s North Pacific voyage of 1791-1795
Donated by Sir Joseph Banks in 1796
Am,NWC.41
7
Implement / Club
Made by Kwakwaka'wakw
Basalt, haliotis shell, bark
Purchased from Dr Peter Comrie in 1870
Am.6784
8
Ceremonial Axe with Human Head
Made by Northwest Coast peoples
Stone, haliotis shell
Previously owned by Oscar Charles Raphael
Acquired in 1945
Am1945,05.12
9
Shaman’s Rattle
Before 1949
Tlingit peoples
Wood, ermine fur
Field Collection by William Ockelford Oldman
Purchased from Dorothy Oldman in 1949
Am1949,22.111
10
Rattle
Before 1930
Made by Northwest Coast peoples
Wood
Purchased from Mrs Estelle W Fuller in 1971
Am1971,24.1
11
Rattle
Haida peoples
Wood
Acquisition details unknown
Am1985,Q.346
12
Figurative Mask
Before 1780
Made by Nuu-chah-nulth
Cedar wood, skin, human hair, spruce gum, mica, bark fiber
Field Collection by Captain James Cook
Donated by Sir Joseph Banks in 1780
Am,NWC.58
13
Totemic Human Mask
19th century
Haida peoples
Wood, leather, fiber
Field Collection by William Ockelford Oldman
Field Collection by George Roberts
Purchased by Dorothy Oldman in 1949
Am1949,22.62
14
Frontlet
1780-1865
Made by Northwest Coast peoples
Baleen, alder wood?, shell, bark, vegetal, abalone shell, spruce gum
Bequeathed by Henry Christy
Previously owned by Royal United Services Institute in 1865
Am.1678
15
Smoking Pipe in the shape of a Bird
Made by Northwest Coast peoples
Wood, copper
Purchased from Dr Peter Comrie in 1870. It was obtained while he was employed as a Medical Officer on HMS Sparrowhawk in the 1860s.
Am.6763
16
Zoomorphic Tobacco Pipe
1780-1880
Made by Tlingit or Haida peoples?
Maple wood?, abalone shell, copper
Field Collection by William Ockelford Oldman
Purchased from Dorothy Oldman in 1949
Am1949,22.80
17
Ladle Handle
19th century
Made by Haida peoples
Big horn sheep horn, mountain goat horn, copper
Purchased from Dorothy Oldman in 1949
Previously owned by William Ockelford Oldman
Am1985,Q.368
18
Knife Handle in the form of a Raven’s Head
Early 19th century
Made by Sitka or Tlingit peoples?
Walrus ivory, abalone shell
Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks
Previously owned by William Wareham in 1869
Am.5402
19
Bowl with Two Supporting Figures
Bowl with Two Supporting Figures
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Made by Nuu-chah-nulth
Alder wood
Field Collection by Captain James Cook
Purchased from Bearnes & Waycotts in 1971
Previously owned by Leverian Museum
Am1971,05.1
20
Figurative Messing Bowl
1700-1780
Made by Haida peoples
Wood
Field Collection by Captain George Dixon
Donated by Sir Joseph Banks in 1789
Am,NWC.25
21
Telescoping Bentwood Chest
1700-1800
Made by Tlingit, Haida, or Tsimshian peoples?
Wood, snail shell, tooth
Donated by St George Littledale in 1920
Am1920,1014.1
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the British Museum.
© The Trustees of the British Museum