UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST, Possibly KIMMIRUT (LAKE HARBOUR)
Needle Case with Head of a Polar Bear, c. 1951-52
walrus tusk, stone, black and red pigments, 4 x 1.5 x 1.5 in (10.2 x 3.8 x 3.8 cm)
apparently unsigned.

Provenance
Important Private Collection, Canada.

James Houston included a drawing of a bear-headed yusk needle case on page 7 of his 1951 booklet Sanajasak: Eskimo Handicrafts, which was written to give ideas and tips to Inuit carvers and craftspeople. The booklet was distributed throughout Nunavik (Arctic Quebec) and elsewhere then withdrawn, but not before numerous works inspired by Houston’s drawings had been carved. The artist who created this exquisite Needle Case followed the overall form of Houston’s drawing but not its engraved design, choosing rather the curious “bush” design seen in other of Houston’s drawings. Furthermore, the artist invented a stone base that allows the object to function as a “sculpture.”

References: For Houston’s drawing, see James Houston, Sanajasak (Sunuyusuk): Eskimo Handicrafts, (Montreal: Canadian Handicrafts Guild and the Department of Resources and Development, 1951), p. 7. Houston’s drawing and an Inukjuak example (possibly a prototype) are likewise illustrated in Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), p. 14. and Darlene Coward Wight, The First Passionate Collector: Ian Lindsay Collection of Inuit Art, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1990), fig. 8, p. 54 and cat. 20, p. 102. For the “bush” design, see Early Masters, p. 26-7.