Tlingit Halibut Hook

Captain Hamilton, reportedly collected in situ
Thence by descent through the Hamilton family, Sundrum Castle, Coylton, Ayrshire
Hope Mitchell (née Hamilton), Pallinsburn House, Ford, Northumberland, inherited in 1917
Thence by descent
Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, The Contents of Pallinsburn House, May 4, 2005, lot 450
Finch & Co., London, acquired at the above auction
Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel, New York, acquired from the above on July 20, 2009

The imagery of this Tlingit halibut hook, or náx, imbued the object with supernatural powers that would help the fisherman when, after a winter diet of dried fish, he set out in the early spring in pursuit of the bottom-dwelling halibut. For the Tlingit, halibut fishing has a cultural significance that transcended its importance as a means of acquiring food. Aldona Jonaitis writes that “halibut fishing relates to the view of a world composed of two complementary parts: one, the secure realm of the village and its environs; the other, the far less secure and potentially hazardous external realm beyond human settlement. To fish for halibut is to penetrate the external world and to subject oneself to its dangers. Supernatural assistance in the form of a halibut hook helps minimize this danger.” (Jonaitis, Tlingit Halibut Hooks: An Analysis of the Visual Symbols of a Rite of Passage, New York, 1981, p. 3).

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).