Letter Opener Item Number: 3584/9 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Letter opener with handle carved into a walrus and bear. Blade is small and triangular, with rounded sides and a sharp point. Main body of handle is a thin rectangle that extends from bottom right corner of blade; walrus and bear protrude from left side of rectangle, shown in profile. The walrus is propped up on its foreflippers; tusks connect to bottom left corner of blade. Bear is standing upright with its head thrust out, hovering over top walrus' hind flippers; ears, carved in relief, are pointed back. All animal facial features, claws, and details on the flippers are coloured with black pigment(?).
Acquired by the donor's father when he lived in Nyac, Alaska, on the Kuskokwim River, from the 1920s to 1960s.