figure; mask

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Object Type: figure; mask
Museum number: Am,NWC.58
Description: Human head figure, mask made of wood (cedar), hide, hair (human), gum (spruce), mica, glue, cord (bark).
Production ethnic group
Production date: 1780 (before)
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Found/Acquired: North America
Materials: cedar wood; skin; human hair; spruce gum; mica; bark fibre
Technique: glued; carved
Dimensions: Height: 35 centimetres; Width: 20 centimetres; Depth: 19 centimetres
Curator's comments: see JCH King `First Peoples, First Contacts' British Museum Press 1999; Illustrated in E Gunther 'Indian Life' Chicago 1972, p 26.
Bibliographic references: King 1999 / First Peoples, First Contacts: Native Peoples of North America (p.139); McLeod & Mack 1985 / Ethnic Sculpture (p.44); King 1979 / Portrait Masks from the Northwest Coast of America (Fig. 34); Gunther 1972 / Indian Life on the Northwest Coast of North America: As Seen by the Early Explorers and Fur Traders during the Last Decades of the Eighteenth Century (fig.5, p.26, app.1:11)
Location: On display (G26/dc5)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 1999 25 Jun-Present, BM Room 26; Gallery of North America, Case: "The Mowachaht of Vancouver Island"
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1780
Acquisition notes: Collected during one of Cook's voyages.
Department: Africa, Oceania and the Americas
Registration number: Am,NWC.58
Additional IDs: CDMS number: Am1780D8.58 (old CDMS no.); Miscellaneous number: Am1780A1110.2

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