Ivory coloured tobacco snuff container made of a snail shell. There is resin around base of shell, attaching hollow tube made of wild pig bone, and glass on the underside of the shell, allowing visibility of the shell’s interior.

Egret bone tube, used to snort tobacco snuff. Long, hollow tube with resin in the centre.

Long, rectangular, brown mask. The sack-like mask is made of tree bark stitched along either side. The top of the mask folds over behind the head. Two eyeholes are made at the bottom of the mask, below the face. The face of the mask is a large diamond made of dried black resin, painted with white and yellow concentric diamond shapes.

Long, rectangular, brown mask. The sack-like mask is made of tree bark stitched along either side. The top of the mask folds over behind the head. Two eyeholes are made at the bottom of the mask, below the face. The face of the mask is a large oval made of dried black resin, painted with white and yellow features and geometric patterns. The mouth is a triangle; there is a vertical diamond pattern on the forehead, horizontal lines on the nose, and square patterns on the cheeks. The face has protruding triangular nose and eyebrows made of balsa wood.

Long, rectangular, brown mask. The sack-like mask is made of tree bark stitched along either side. The top of the mask folds over behind the head and has a dark brown fringe made of bark strips which cascades down the back like hair. Two eyeholes are made at the bottom of the mask, below the face. The face of the mask is a large oval made of dried black resin, painted with white and yellow features and geometric patterns. The mouth is a triangle, the cheeks and forehead have semi-circles and there are horizontal lines on the eyebrows. The face has protruding triangular nose and eyebrows made of balsa wood.

By exchange

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.

Round, polychrome bowl with three distinct sections. The upper section has a cream slip and dark brown rectilinear design, with both thin and thick lines. A “U” shaped ridge frames a face on each side of the bowl; with protruding noses, painted eyes, mouths, and tattoo-like rectilinear designs. One face has some loss above one eye on the bowl rim. The top and bottom borders of this section have dark brown wave-like lines around the circumference. The upper section tapers outwards towards the mid section. The mid section has an orange-brown slip with a rectilinear design made up of thin dark brown lines and thicker cream lines. The lower section is an undecorated beige colour, which constricts sharply from the broad mid section to a 6 cm flat base. The interior surface of the bowl has a red-brown slip.

Native American artists Marcellus and Elizabeth Toya Medina and Kevin Pourier create works inspired by both old and new art forms. The painted designs on the water jar of classic Pueblo shape combine traditional masked Kachinas in static poses with naturalistic, muscled, male Pueblo dancers who seem to burst off the vessel’s surface. The inlaid buffalo-horn spoon, a traditional Plains implement, is given a contemporary twist in Pourier’s homage to M. C. Escher’s hypnotic prints.

Gift of Dr. Werner Muensterberger