Tlingit artists of the late nineteenth century often rendered the creatures of crest art as silhouetted figures. Rather than constructing the animal of interconnected formline patterns, their salient features were detailed with formline elements, such as the ovoid joints of flipper and tail. This stout killer whale is an excellent example of this style. The configuration is unusual, but not unique, with the two halves of the split whale joined at the tail, and the heads coming together on each side of the double-hook clasp. Sure, bold engraving delineates the various parts: the broad pectoral fin with its clawlike divisions, the downturned dorsal fin, and the spread flukes. Ovoid joints and eyes are absolutely uniform in their rounded, arched form - an indication of an artist whose style is mature and individualized. (Holm, Box of Daylight, 1983).

Asymmetrical designs are very unusual on classic northern bracelets. This Haida artist chose to depict a thunderbird in an intensely active composition of formline complexes sweeping around the bracelet from one end to the other. Most Haida flat design of the late nineteenth century is reserved and steady, with calmly symmetrical creatures whose formline structures are based on a few solid, slightly diverging curves. Here the joints and feathers shoot off at wild angles, but always eventually accomodate the formlines they join. The U forms taper strongly and together with the broad arch of the ovoids mark an individual artist's style. He might be John Cross, as the work resembles later, signed work by that Haida artist. The background and some of the tertiary areas are hatched in single, diagonal lines. It is an integrated, energetic, and highly innovative example of Haida art. (Holm, Box of Daylight, 1983).