UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST, TSIMSHIAN OR HEILTSUK,

Bentwood Box,c. 1870-80

kerfed and bent red cedar, pigment, 26 x 20.5 x 18.75 in (66 x 52.1 x 47.6 cm).

unsigned.

Provenance

A Canadian Collection.

Bent-corner boxes are some of the most interesting technical marvels of Northwest Coast cultures. They were used as storage containers for all manner of household goods from Hudson’s Bay blankets to cooking and eating utensils to dried fish and seaweed cakes. The flat lids enabled them to be stacked around the outer platforms of the house as well as being used for seating when convenient.

The four sides are made of a long plank of wood, split from one of the gigantic trees once common on the coast. The sides are not fastened together separately, but rather the plank is tightly bent at three places using one of several specially shaped grooves, or kerfs. Within these most of the wood is removed, leaving only the thin bottom of the kerf intact, which when soaked and steamed, bends around creating three rounded corners. The fourth corner is half-lapped, or rabbeted, and pegged with wooden pins to secure it. The bottom of the box is similarly fit into a rabbet on the perimeter of the bottom board, and pegged diagonally to hold it in place. The traditionally thick lids are hollowed out to lighten them and reduce shrinkage and cracks. A rabbet on the bottom edge creates a narrow lip that fits down within the box around the perimeter, holding the lid in place without need for other fasteners.

The painting on this box follows the conventions of a style that was common in the mid to late nineteenth century among the coast Tsimshian, Haisla, and Heiltsuk groups. It is characterized by thin formlines, broad negative areas, small inner ovoids, dynamic compositions highly arched across the center line, and innovative formline overlaps.

Steven C. Brown

Literature: See Bill McLennan and Karen Duffek’s book The Transforming Image: Painted Arts of the Northwest Coast First Nations (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2000) for an exhaustive discussion that includes Northwest Coast bentwood boxes. For three 19th century Heiltsuk (Bella Bella) examples see Bill Holm, The Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art (Seattle Art Museum, 1983), pp. 68-69.