Featured Inuit otter carving id help?

Hello knowledgeable peeps, having had no luck on Katilvik with this one, I thought i'd ask if anyone here could id this carving? Signed Thomassie then l.o.v (or could be I.O.V so I or small L) hidden underneath the sticker. Tag number E-9-1462. It's a sweet carving, I like the otters face and the movement in the body, plus it's well balanced over the small base. Photos below and thanks in advance
Ooops, excuse duplicated thumbnails!

 

@Mark London

 

oh...me too, me too please.......

E9-1462
Thomassiapik Sivuarapik
born 1941 Povungnituk, Canada.

Nice Otter...good carver !

BUT..... who's Haida Argillite are u using as your avatar ?

 

Sorry - not an intentional slight.

 

but a slight none the less.........


No No No....................just kidding !!!
Mark is the Go Too......... I'm just 2nd fiddle......... but I got the Book !!!

 

Oooo thank you so much komokwa, I hate not being able to put a person to something, especially when it's a carving and so much work went into it.

The Haida Argillite is mine, a treasured find one day, and dated to around 1880 by Bonhams and a couple of Canadian museums. It's lost its base piece and is unsigned (may have been on the base) but I love it. Here's a couple more pics...sorry, older photos and not best quality, I must take some more!

 

so beautiful love it!!

 

Thanks!

 

with the base missing and damage to the back,,,,,i'm shocked the rest of the carving has held up so well !!! ....

The pics are fine ...here we appreciate good photo's !!

If it's 1880...no signature would be normal.
The base though...would be an easy fix....depending upon where U R.....

Thanks for showing it....& yer most welcome for any help I could provide on the otter !!

 

Considering how I found it i'm also amazed at how well the rest of the carving has stood up to the 140 plus years! Not much I can do regarding the base over here as i'm based in Bristol, UK and nobody has much knowledge of argillite here. I do wonder if it came over on one of the ships out of Bristol docks and stayed but I know nothing of it's history before I found it.

I do have a modern piece that has caused some controversy, as it looks like a 'wolf' style molded piece but is made from argillite or something incredibly similar. I have found four other carvings, all very similar sold at auction houses (including Skinners) as argillite, and though none were signed they looked like the same artist. I'm 90% sure it's not reconstituted stone and appears to have been possibly carved from three pieces put together. Would very much appreciate your thoughts on this one... (the slight remains of writing visible on the base were from a postcode written for security by the last owner)

 

OOOOOOWWW......

Score on your Haida Argillite.....
This next piece.......not so much !
1st off....it's an Inuit souvenir item.....60's....70's....made when companies used a more stone like composition...than the resin used today.

I don't know if reconstituted stone was ever a thing....but some makers did use a thing called Hydrastone....

In any case , Argillite...it's not !

PS... I've seen more than one auction house sell Argillite.....that WASN'T !!!
hell....I even bid on one piece...that even fooled me.....but not for long.
Thankfully....I later discovered it's true nature....but not before I bid it thru the roof.....so much so.....it landed in a publication.....that...well.... published the auction results as fact...when in fact.....it's in error !!
Yah...that one was on me !!!!

 

Thanks for that, I was never sure of it though I did think it wasn't composite, it just seems too well made and not like the tourist pieces I've seen about, although the style is certainly the same which is why I wondered about it. This was the one in Skinners..
https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2533B/lots/427

It was another local find and i'm not too worried about it being a 70s tourist piece, not something I would collect as such, I certainly wouldn't touch the resin ones, but I like the bear! I love your auction story, just goes to show the fancies of auctions and why we love and hate them!

 

Ahhhhhhhhh...I get it now.!!!
Argillite is a stone used in many carvings.......or many carvings are said to be made of Argillite..... some Inuit carvings..
BUT
That Orca you have is made of Haida Argillite found in only one place on earth...Slatechuck Mountain.
It's a carbonaceous Shale......as opposed to other Argillites..which are more rock like.

 

Yeah, don't think I will ever be lucky enough to find another 1800s Haida piece, though over here most people don't recognise Northwest Coastal art which is how I found the Orca. I would love to find a Haida or Tlingit silver cuff bracelet from the earlier 1900s but doubt that will ever happen!

I know that only Haida can get access to the Haida Gwai argillite now, it's a protected resource, which is great. I'm not so sure on the other types, though I read it is found elsewhere. Thanks for spending the time to reply to my posts, much appreciated indeed

 

Absolutely gorgeous piece.

 

Thanks

 

Nuf said. Sometimes, if it speaks to you, the art holds up for its own sake. Tourist or not, I like the action it evokes - it drew me in.

I'd pit some of my daughter's elementary school art against some of the work in the Guggenheim, if you know what I mean. I'll never retire off it though.

Really enjoyed both pieces. thx.

 

ignore, duplicated post

 

Thanks, i'm glad you like the hunter carving as well, I find myself caught up in the fight depicted but also wishing the bear would escape as I like bears! I collect pieces that call to me, rather an eclectic mix, including the Haida carving, pottery like 16th French century chocolate pot, Chinese and Japanese items...all sorts really. My main area is antique silver jewellery, especially Chinese and Anglo Indian 19th century when I find them, but I love researching anything, that's what I enjoy most.

 

Girl after my own heart. My last acquisition was a Chinese Export Silver dragon necklace, the one before that an Anglo-Indian Madras 'Swami' style locket.