A NATIVE AMERICAN SHELL-INLAID CARVED WOOD SHAMAN'S STAFF,probably early 20th century, Tlingit. The flaring cylindrical section, carved in the form of a totemic octopus, surmounted in turn by an animal face mask, a beaver, a pair of sea mammals, another face mask framed by a woodworm, a raven with a frog on its abdomen, another animal mask and a beaver perched at the top below the knob handle, a frog surmounted by a sea mammal on the reverse; eyes and teeth inset with small abalone shell plaques. Mounted on a black-painted wood block
H: 35 in. Estimate $15,000-18,000
PROVENANCE:
Sotheby's, New York Sale - November 28, 1989
ILLUSTRATED:
Native Arts of the Pacific Northwest, Robert Tyler Davis, Palo Alto, California, 1949, plate 65
