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Description

A front or rear panel from a bent box which has been carved and painted with a double eyed face design. The paint is black and red, there are also faint traces of greenish blue paint in the eye-sockets. The edges of the panel are damaged but on one side the remnant of the bent corner is visible. The panel has had wood worm at some point .; Good

Context

This panel is from a coffin box, which would usually have been longer than they were tall, and which were used for the remains of the chief. (G. Crowther). In 1994 Dr George MacDonald, of the Canadian Museum of Civilisation, gave the fragment a Bella Bella provenance. The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separate GLT fields.; The kerfed storage boxes are characteristic of the Northwest Coast and exhibit a very high degree of technical prowess. The boxes were made from one sheet of wood which had grooves cut where the corners were later made when the sheet was steamed into a square. The open side was either sewn together with Spruce root or pegged with wooden pegs. The lids were usually removable, while the bases were pegged onto the sides. This panel is from a ceremonial box, which were usually longer than they were tall, and were used to store chiefly ceremonial regalia. It was from such a box that the mythic Raven stole the sun and brought light to the world. The design on the box is produced in the highly abstract distributive style, whereby the identityof the creature is deliberately ambiguous. The ambiguity surrounding the identity of the creature would have enabled an owner to assert an identity appropriate to their own assemblage of crests (G.Crowther).