Figure

The generous presentation of food to the assembled guests is an essential component of Northwest Coast feasts and potlatches, today as in the past. That moment of offering is what the carver of this sculpture chose to depict, albeit with the bulging food dish supported on the back of a crouching figure who likely represents a slave -- a further symbol of the host’s wealth. In this miniature form the food dish appears weighty because the artist carved it in scale to an actual large bentwood dish. The carefully chiselled texture on the surface of the dish is in proportion relative to the parallel adzing on a full-sized vessel, and the texturing on the larger figure is similarly comparable to the adzed surface of a house post or totem pole.

Purchased by the donor through a Sotheby's auction in 2009. According to their information, the piece came from a private English collection and, previously, the G. Terasaki collection in NY. Exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1983, and said to be published in Zena P. Matthews' "Color and Shape In American Indian Art" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, page 8, fig. 3). Also published in Evan Mauer's "The Native American Heritage" (Art Institute of Chicago, 1977, #418).

The style of the kneeling person’s face and elaborate head covering differs from typical Kwakwaka’wakw or other Northwest Coast representations. It is reminiscent of designs found on ships. The bulging bowl implies abundance.

The fluting on the bowl is typical of Quatsino style carving. The artist uses textures and lines to make it look woven.

Wooden sculpture of a human figure with a carved dish, or bowl, on the back of a slave. The main figure is kneeling and holding a bulging bentwood-style dish, balanced on the back of another smaller figure, who is crouched down on all fours and looking out from the front of the base.