An Eskimo Polychromed Mask, probably Nunivak Island, Alaska

carved in high relief on a rectangular convex panel with a serrated upper edge, centering a face of an unidentified creature, with grooved mouth, circular nostrils and oval eye rims beneath arching brows, flanked on the perimeter by pairs of attachments, in the form of fins or flippers, inset with long wooden plugs, the whole painted in red and dark blue pigments; an old label on the reverse reading: "Bought from Alaska Curio shop, Aug 16-1935."

Formerly in the Collection of Mr. Robert Henri Duvall, WA 

For a comparable mask, possibly by the same hand, please see Conn, Native American Art, Denver Art Museum, 1979, p. 341, item 479: "Eskimo groups along the southwest coast of Alaska carved wooden ceremonial masks representing the powerful spirits of nature who bestow their beneficence or malice according to the respect they receive. The Eskimo believe each being is inhabited by a multiplicity of souls which is depicted in art by composite images."