Primitive & Rare! Circa1970 Cape Dorset Sculpture of a Musk Ox

During the the nineteenth century the Inuit carvers never imaged that their special "whittles" which they carved during the cold and forever dark days of the winter, would become of such great value. With the crudest and simplest of materials, they were able to take a block of stone and create these incredibly strong and distinctive shapes showing their attitude and spiritual beliefs toward the human figure and animals.

In this exceptional carving the artist has taken a very rare and older mottled green stone ( Serpentine), and with his carving has captured the essence of the Musk Ox showing the massiveness of the animal and has depicted, in Stone! the muscular movement of Musk Ox's body and fur as it walks. Absolutely Superb!

The work signed in syllabics is unfortunately unidentifiable, as many of these earlier primitive Inuit sculptures were, however the Canadian Governments Co- op tag does accompany this work authenticating it to be genuine and very early Inuit.

Condition: Mint

Size Length; 6 1/2 " Height: 3 3/4 "

SIGNED BY THE ARTIST AND AUTHENTICATED by the CANADIAN GOVERNMENT

Item ID: gz000215