Native American, Pacific Northwest, Canada, British Columbia, Nuu-Cha-Nulth (Nootka), ca. 1870 CE. Skillfully woven, a twined cedar bark basketry hat of a classic conical, domed form with a flattened crown and flaring sides, an inner headband, the exterior beautifully hand-painted with totemic designs, twin abstract animal visages in red, green, and dark blue or black. Handwritten on an old tag sewn to the rim is, "THIS HAT MADE FROM CEDAR BARK BY THE BRITISH COLUMBIA INDIANS. ARE PAST HISTORY." It is amazing to think that the famous Lewis and Clark collected Nootka hats as souvenirs from their time along the Columbia River, that the famous Captain James Cook encountered villagers wearing such hats in the inlet of the Nootka Sound in 1778, and that Franz Boas, a major pioneer of modern anthropology, studied and featured similar Nootka hats in his ethnographic writings. Custom stand. Size: 13.25" in diameter x 6.625" H (33.7 cm x 16.8 cm); 16.5" H (41.9 cm) on stand

According to Mary Malloy, "During the time they spent in the Columbia River, Lewis and Clark observed a number of basketry hats made and worn by the Chinookan-speaking people who lived in the region. The explorers described and illustrated some of these hats in their journals, commissioned others for their own use, and collected hats as souvenirs, which were carefully preserved during the long march back across the continent. Today five hats at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (PMAE) at Harvard University have a provenance that potentially associates them with the Lewis and Clark expedition." (http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/2981) Hats created by the Nootka peoples also represent the extensive trade network that existed even prior to this age of exploratory expeditions between the indigenous and American and European mariners.

This piece was featured in a Sotheby's New York auction (16 May 2012 - lot 21).

Provenance: private Grimmer Roche collection; listed in Sotheby's New York May 16, 2012 auction, lot 21

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#122456

Very minor fraying/loss to a few areas of rim edge. Painting is quite vivid, pigments are strong. Cedar shows nice dark patina. Internal band is intact. Overall excellent.