figure

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Object Type
Museum number: Am1896,-.1202
Description: Sphinx figure made of wood (pine), plaster.
Producer name
Production ethnic group: Made by: Northwest Coast Peoples; Made by: Haida
Production date: 1874-1878
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Found/Acquired: Masset
Materials: pine (?); plaster; cedar wood (?)
Dimensions: Height: 74.50 centimetres; Weight: 18 kilograms; Width: 36 centimetres; Depth: 37 centimetres
Curator's comments: Register comment from 1896: "in a deserted village near Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands. Found in a pit in a house. Carved by Simeon Silthda, a Haida, from a picture in an illustrated Bible shown him by Rev. Wm. Collison between 1874 & 1878". There is an additional note that the object was obtained from "[Clarke]".
Bibliographic references: Russell 2012 / Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art (No.66); Wright 2001 / Northern Haida Master Carvers (p. 290); Wright 1998 / Two Haida Artists from Yan: Will John Gwaytihl and Simeon Stilthda Please Step Apart (p.46, no.7); Painter 2017 / When is a Haida sphinx: thinking about laws with things
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 1980 Feb-1983 Aug, Museum of Mankind, Room 9; Art Made for Strangers: Haida Argillite Carving 1993-95, London, Museum of Mankind, 'Treasures of the Americas' 2012 14 Jan-29 Apr, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem; Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1896
Department: Africa, Oceania and the Americas
Registration number: Am1896,-.1202
Additional IDs: CDMS number: Am1896C3.1202 (old CDMS no.)
Conservation: Treatment: 25 Mar 1994; Treatment: 03 Dec 2011; Treatment: 08 Dec 1992; Treatment: 29 Sep 1992; Conservation treatment: 18 nov 2022

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