A SUPERBLY PAINTED NORTHWEST COAST LIDDED BOX, PROBABLY HEILTSUK, CIRCA MID-19th CENTURY. BELLA BELLA, BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Anthropos Gallery

This box of red cedar, a finely painted example of a personal space to keep chiefly or shamanic paraphernalia within, was executed with native and trade pigments dating to the 3rd Quarter of the 19th Century in Bella Bella on the Central Coast of British Columbia. The thin red formlines contrast with the heavy black borders creating unique negative space within the traditional "creature of the box" design elements, stylistically Heiltsuk. Steven C. Brown, scholar and author of many reference books on N.W. Coast art and former curator of Ethnographic Art at the Seattle Art Museum commented on this box: "The box is a nice one. I think it’s most likely Heiltsuk, indicated by very thin formlines in imaginative structures, very gracefully combined. As to iconography, such designs are part of the box tradition and essentially non-representational. Their originality is found in the structural variations each artist injects in the designs. These are remarkable in how thin to which some of the main formline structures have been reduced. Compared to Haida or other square boxes, there’s a whole lot of unpainted areas within the designs. Definitely the work of a skilled and highly original artist."

$7,995.00

Artwork details