Torso
Life Story
This torso shows the shortened arms, close against the body, typical of many Punuk images. The slightly swelling abdomen suggests the figure is female. It is engraved with a necklace and four bands across each arm and shoulder. The head was certainly broken off when the figure was still in use, since an ivory peg set into the break and a repair hole at the back of the neck show how the damaged head was once reattached. There is a deep-drilled circular pit in the lower part of the back, purpose unknown.
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. 231.
Provenance
Purchased by the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia from Martin Ellman, New York, on the advice of Robert Sainsbury in 1983 from the income of the Sainsbury Purchasing Fund.
On display
Title/Description: Torso
Materials: Walrus ivory
Measurements: h. 102 x w. 50 x d. 30 mm
Accession Number: 877
Historic Period: Punuk period (c. AD 500-1200)
Production Place: Alaska, Bering Sea, North America, The Americas
Credit Line: Purchased with support from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1983
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