**Originally Listed At $350**

(1) Noah Koughajuke (disc number E7-210, Lake Harbour / Kimmirut, 1899-1976). Seal. Soapstone carving, n.d. Signed with disc number and syllabics on underside of base; (2) Nuyaliaq Qimirpik (disc number E7-99, Lake Harbour / Kimmirut, 1937-2007). Walrus Head and Spirit Head. Soapstone carving, n.d. Signed with disc number and syllabics on underside of base. A beautiful pair of soapstone carvings: a seal by Noah Koughajuke and a spirit head and walrus head by Nuyaliaq Qimirpik. First, the seal presents a smooth blubbery body as his head stretches forward displaying petite, target motif eyes and a rounded snout with a delineated mouth and nostrils. Alternatively, the other carving displays the head of a walrus with bone tusks rising from an asymmetrical base next to a spirit head with anthropomorphic features surmounted by a protruding seal head. Size of largest (seal): 7.5" L x 3.2" W x 1.9" H (19 cm x 8.1 cm x 4.8 cm)

Though many people think of Nuyaliaq Qimirpik as a carver of muskoxen, for a period of 3 years in the late 1960s Nuyaliaq led a group of carvers in Kimmirut in creating a remarkable group of spirit carvings at the request of a local schoolteacher Tony Whitbourne who was buying carvings for the government for the time. he same sort of spiritual flowering of art had occurred in nearby Cape Dorset in the early 1960s, in both graphic art and sculpture; however that florescence was more sustained, is far better documented, and never completely died out. Nuyaliaq?s Walrus and Spirit Head sculpture is an important example of this style.

A stone sculpture titled "Horned Spirit And Owl" by Nuyaliaq Qimirpik sold for $9,600 CAD (equivalent to $7,296 USD) on May 28th, 2019 at Waddington's Auction House in Toronto (lot 23).

Provenance: private Greenwood Village, Colorado, USA collection

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#178794

Both are signed with disc numbers and syllabics on underside of bases. Loss to bone on back of seal and seal head on top of spirit head has been professionally reattached with break line visible. Both have some light scratches to surface but are otherwise very nice. Walrus head and spirit head are removable from base.