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Lot 33 : RARE NORTHWEST COAST PRE-HISTORIC STONE EFFIGY BOWL

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RARE NORTHWEST COAST PRE-HISTORIC STONE EFFIGY BOWL
c. 200 BC - 200 AD
carved brown-green mottled soapstone depicting an anthropomorphic bird-man; a central receptacle cavity with a humanoid face at the front; pierced at top for suspension or fastening purposes; 7.5h; 8.25"l; on custom polished wood stand
Provenance: Bonham's and Butterfields, San Francisco,
Native American and Pre-Colombian Art, 6/4/2007, lot 4093
Found by a family living East of Vancouver in the lower Fraser region of British Colombia before 1955 and remaining in the family until the sale in 2007.
Illustrated: Carlson, Roy, Editor,
Archeology of Coastal British Columbia, Arch Press, 2003, A New Look at Northwest Coast Stone Bowls, a chapter by Grant Keddie, Curator of Archeology at the Royal British Colombia Museum in Victoria; pictured on the cover and page 166.
Mr. Keddie discussed this bowl, "Although there are about 100 known seated human figures that have a bowl in front of them with a bird, human or other animal figure on the front of the bowl, there are only 3 seated bird figures with bowls known. This one is unique as it appears to represent a bird-man figure rather than a realistic bird. The figure has a human face on the bowl in front of it and a subdued motif along its sides that likely represents a rattlesnake. Similar hatched motifs are clearly represented as rattlesnakes on other seated human figure bowls. The general types of figural seated bowls come from archeological site deposits in the period around 200 B.C. to 200 A.D."

Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000
Realized: $5,000 - Excluding Buyer's Premium


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