Rare ritual set

Wooden boxes like this one were among a man’s most prized possessions. Great care was taken in their creation. They were shaped by steaming, folding and dowelling the various parts to produce a work that was both beautiful and useful.

They were designed to hold spare harpoon heads used for hunting.

The box was said to hold a spiritual power that favored successful hunting.

The hunter, carrying the box adorned with these effigies, showed his reverence to the spirit of the Inua animals.

Our box features a hinged lid and sinew handle. This is topped by a kayaker, surrounded by six half-moons set into the wood. The animals on the sloping part of the lid represent species hunted at sea or on the ice floes: seals, bears, whales and seabirds (one animal is a native replacement).

The base of the box, mounted on a truncated cone-shaped base, is surrounded by a set of ten reinforcements in the form of pegged rods accompanied by two pieces in the shape of a rounded rhombus and connected by a sinew thread running through the inside of the box to hold and solidify the whole. A painted decoration of half-moons covers the whole wood.

According to Jeffrey Myers, this box was probably presented and given to a man in a ceremony to honor his remarkable hunting skills, using his kayak as his primary means of transport for capturing native species.

This rare set is the most elaborate he has encountered in either private or museum collections.

Price: €21,000