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Maskette
Life Story
Four peg holes at the top suggest that this flat-backed maskette was formerly attached to another object. The nose is damaged, but when complete may have resembled the flukes of a whale’s tail (Ray, 1967: pl. 54, shows a mask from Point Hope with a whale fluke nose which was used in whaling ritual).
Steven Hooper, 1997
Entry taken from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection, Vol. 2: Pacific, African and Native North American Art, edited by Steven Hooper (Yale University Press, 1997) p. 252.
Provenance
Purchased by the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia from Arbutus Limited on the advice of Robert Sainsbury in 1980 out of income from the Sainsbury Purchasing Fund.
Not on display
Title/Description: Maskette
Object Type: Mask
Materials: Wood
Measurements: h. 78 x w. 50 x d. 28 mm
Accession Number: 732
Historic Period: 19th century
Production Place: Alaska, North America, Point Hope (?), The Americas
Cultural Group: Inuit
Credit Line: Purchased with support from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1980
In from the Cold: Five Sainsbury Centre Treasures at the British Museum
Objects from the Centre’s collection offer snapshots of life in the Arctic
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