Small Raven Rattle
Northern
Hardwood, hide binding and paint. 10 5/8" L, ca. 1780-1800

Perhaps the most graceful and delicate object created by NW Coast ceremonialists, the Raven rattle is also a very old and respected object of tradition. Certain extremely old and brittle ones exist, likely collected from graves, which suggest that the image usually portrayed is one that is very ancient, though its specific origin is unknown. This arrangement of raven, human, and sometimes frog has been reinterpreted by successive generations of artists, most of whom leave the core image absolutely intact, while rendering their own unique variations of the details thereon.

This example is a particularly small and compactly designed one. It bears the most common raven rattle features: the form line face with a received beak on the belly, the tail of the raven raised up and elaborated into a long-beaked bird face, and the reclining human figure with its tongue held in the beak of the tail-bird. In this version, the tail is set more forward on the raven¹s body than on many others, and the body and legs of the human are correspondingly short. The face of the human is handled as a softly-arched, formline-type structure, the features of the face quite shallowly relieved. The head of the raven is also shorter than many, yet still has been cut through up the middle, isolating the neck and opening a space between the ears. This traditional structure harmonizes with the delicate piercing on the back of the raven, and removes unwanted weight from the wood which may affect the rattle¹s sound.

The flat design embellishment is of an early style, most likely Tlingit or Haida work. The worn and faded pigments and other surface patination suggest that this rattle is quite old, held by a succession of high-ranking chiefs of clans at ceremonial gatherings as a symbol of wealth and prestige, as an accompaniment to songs and dance.

Provenance : George Terasaki