Anchorage (purchased here), Alaska, United States, North America
Accession Date:
12 Jul 2005
Collection Date:
1955 to 1975
Notes:
Carved ivory bracelet with scrimshaw. 9 ivory panels with alternating scrimshaw and jade inserts. Scrimshaw depicts geese. Ivory panels are strung together on an elastic-like string. There is a hole in the back of one of the panels where the string has been tied off. In the accession file there is a note typed on letter head with the following address: Evelyn's Surprise Gift Shop, Alaska Jewelry and Gifts. Evelyn and Lloyd Hall. BR. 8-6175. 238 Fourth Avenue, Anchorage, Alaska. The note includes descriptions for 2 objects in this accession. The following seems to describe this bracelet: "This bracelet is from Little Diomede [Inupiaq] and was made by one of the older men. The white ivory is a complete slice of a young female tusk--the darker ivory is Mammoth at least 20,000 years old and took the coloring from the minerals in the ground nearby. The jade is from the Kobuk River Range, North of the Arctic Circle. This is the best etching I have ever seen in all the years---it is done by scratching with a sharp tool into the ivory and then the blacking is rubbed into it". When the object arrived in the museum, this bracelet was in a box with number 7 and number 9. "Oct 27_75" was written on the interior lid of the box.
