The Scholar's Feast: The Rosman Rubel Collection
The Scholar's Feast: The Rosman Rubel Collection
Lot Closed
April 8, 05:12 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 9,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Tlingit Halibut Hook
náx
Height: 13 in (33 cm)
The imagery that appears on halibut hooks such as the present lot relates closely to the “images found on the art of the Tlingit shaman”, or íxt’. Although the imagery of halibut hooks is “shamanistic” rather than “shamanic”, since the íxt’ played no active role in fishing, Jonaitis notes that halibut hooks have “an innate potency” similar to that of the small charms of ivory and bone that formed part of the shaman’s extensive paraphernalia (ibid., p. 19).