A Superb Toggle or Drag Handle

A superb toggle or drag handle carved in the form of a stylized whale. There are what appear to be a series of tally marks incised on the undecorated edge of the toggle. The individual ornamental design motifs do not relate to any formal representation of the whale-form yet when taken as an imbricated and total design they offer a subtle reading of the whales features : the concentric circle and dot at the head, the central concentric ovals and dot, the body and the sweeping motifs highlighted with dots at the extremity figuring the tail flukes.­­ Punuk Islands, Saint Lawrence Island, Bering Strait, Alaska, USA. Punuk Culture 600 – 900 AD. Mineralized walrus tusk (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). 11,4 cm.

Provenance Ex Norman Hurst Gallery, Cambridge, Mass., 1998.

Literature: Arctic Ivory - Two Thousand Years of Alaskan Eskimo Art and Artifacts, Norman Hurst Gallery, Cambridge, Mass., 1998, N° 17.