This beautiful bentwood box is characterized by a rich deep tone and a brilliantly executed formline design. The proportion of the shapes and the flow of the symmetrical designs are classically northern in style and expertly rendered.

Discussing boxes and chests, Bill Holm writes: “If any single object can characterize the culture of the Northwest Coast it must be the remarkable container called the bent-corner box.”

These boxes were used for the storage of food, clothing, regalia and tools, among other purposes. A fine Tsimshian bentwood box painted with crest motifs such as this would have been used for storage of ceremonial regalia and personal effects. The Northwest Coast people were master artisans, and the technical accomplishment of making these boxes without the use of nails was considerable. Yellow or red straight-grained cedar wood would be split using wooden or antler wedges into thin, flat slabs, whose thickness and smoothness would be refined using adzes and knives. After cutting bending grooves (also called kerfs) in the plank, the maker would then steam and bend it to create sides. Writes Holm: “The final, joining corner was fitted with great skill and fastened with pegs or lacing through drilled holes. A fitted bottom was similarly fastened, and a lid was matched to the upper edges. In the end, the box was watertight, oil-tight, and vermin-proof, suitable for the storage of preserved food, or the regalia of a chief.”

John Livingston noted about this piece that the lid is made from the bottom of an old box. Bill McLennan dates this work to the late nineteenth century.

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