Sea Bear

Provenance:
By descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver

Literature:
Robin K. Wright, Northern Haida Master Carvers, 2001, pages 174 and 209
Notes:
Duncan Ginaawaan was a Haida of the Raven clan and a well-known early resident of Klinkwan, in Alaska. His mother was from the Middle Town People and his father was said to have been a white sea captain, from whom he received his name. His family was entwined with that of Albert Edward Edenshaw - whose descendant was the famous artist Charles Edenshaw. Robin Wright notes: "It is possible that Charles Edenshaw learned silver engraving from Duncan ginaawaan, his wife's mother's uncle, after moving north in the 1850s. We know that Charles and his wife, Isabella, named their first son (Robert) ginaawaan after this man, two years after his death." Pioneer anthropologist Marius Barbeau was aware of Ginaawaan's accomplished jewellery. He commented on a gold bracelet worn by Ginaawaan's daughter, "It is beautifully engraved, one of the wonders of that day." This rare, exquisitely carved early Haida bracelet features very fine cross-hatching work and elegantly stylized vegetal forms to either side of the central sea bear form, a supernatural being of the undersea realm.