Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art.

Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art.

Gift of Mrs. Ferdinand C. Smith and Mr. L. Hawley Hoffman.

Gift of Miss Mary F. Failing.

Round drum, double-faced, with drumming surface on both sides. Midsection flares out and is covered in a dark red velvet, with an encircling line of metal rivets on both sides of the fabric holding the skin tightly in place. Skin has been painted black. A metal noisemaker inside the instrument serves as a rattle.

Carved wooden club. Weapon is thin with tapering edges and a smooth finish. Head is kidney shaped, with a wide top and a sharply indented curve above a protruding carved figure of a human/bird amalgamation in a sitting position. Figure’s head is large and round, with deeply inset eyes, and a large sharp beak from which emerges a tongue that curves down to make contact with the figure's chest. Arms are bent, hands resting on stomach. Legs are bent at the knees and feet dangle. The handle of the club is short and narrow, culminating in a pommel carved into two circles, one with inset beads of abalone shell on each side at centre, the other with a hole through which is tied a small thong of leather.

Gift of Dr. Werner Muensterberger

Headdress in the style of a bearclaw headdress, except the "claws" are each carved from sheep horn. Two thick leather strips are stitched together at the ends to form a circular forehead strap. Attached to the strap are 24 long, curved "claws" sewn on at their proximal ends. Each is attached by a nail to a small square of horn. Their distal ends are blunted, and a small hole has been bored through each tip for cotton string to pass through. The string connects the horn claws to each other and to two large feather pieces (lower shafts), as well as to short leather thongs. Thin pieces of sinew are wrapped around the string. A piece of cotton is tied to each side, dropping down under the headdress where they are tied together.

Watercolour and ink painting of Guanyin, Buddhist goddess of mercy, produced for the lunar New Year. The painting is adhered, below the midpoint, to a long scroll of heavy paper covered in silk and attached to a black wood scroll bar. A brown ribbon is attached to the top of the scroll. Image shows Guanyin dressed in white, grey and blue robes, an intricate copper and green crown on her head, seated on a blue lion with flowing yellow hair. Behind the goddess are two circles containing geomentric linear patterns, accented with yellow and blue.

Wooden slat body armour which has been painted and has small faces carved in a line round its middle. The slats are bound together with string-like binding; Good. Additional description: Armour consists of curved front and back pieces, each with an upper flap. Rear piece is shorter, but curves into a tongue shape at centre. Body sections secured together with four horizontal bands of lashing. Flaps secured with two bands of lashing. Front and back body sections decorated with a row of carved heads. The two flaps have a single head at centre of each. Armour also painted with geometric shapes. (J. Tanner, 1999).