A Northwest Coast raven rattle
Designed as a raven with wings partially outstretched, supporting a reclining human figure connected to a frog on its back, further carved with the face of a hawk and another creature on the underside, with repairs.
length 12 1/2in, height 4 3/4in
Footnotes:
Provenance
Property from the Collection of Del Nordquist

Exhibited
The Box of Daylight, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, 15 September 1983 – 8 January 1984

Illustrated
Holm, Bill, The Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art, 1983, Seattle Art Museum/University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA, p. 26, fig. 13., identified as Northern Northwest Coast. In discussing the present lot, Holm begins with a comparison to another rattle included in the exhibition and illustrated in the companion book: 'Although it follows the same configuration as the previous rattle, this one is quite different in feeling. The body of the rattle is flatter, and the neck much more angular. Elbows firmly planted on the raven's back, the man arches his torso, from which a frog emerges and bites the tongue. A prominent nose, rather than a hooked beak, protrudes from the tail-bird's face. The two-dimensional detail conforms to the formline tradition.
Raven rattles are typically delicate and light. The thin hardwood shell is very resonant. A thimbleful of tiny rattles enclosed in the body - sometimes pebbles but more often, in historic times, lead shot - strikes against the thin enclosure to make the swishing sound imitated by all the northern tribes in their word for the rattle, sasawkh.'

With old repairs to breaks as stated, including a number of small breaks/cracks near joint with handle and an approximately 3 1/2in crack on the underside of the rattle. Glue residue about the joint between top and bottom halves (halves have been broken apart and rejoined).