I purchased this one at Rhinebeck from a dealer who found it in an antiques shop in Florida and knew nothing about it. I look at a fair number of Inuit stone carvings, but rarely come across one in this glorious serpentine green stone, which looks like a sort of mottled Jade, and here, polished to a high finish, is just gorgeous. Unsigned, but I have some notion it may be the work of Henry Evaluardjuk (1923-2007), Iqaluit, of Frobisher Bay, Canada - sometimes called "the father of bears," as polar bears were his most frequent subject, and who often worked in this type of stone. I don't know for sure, but . I love its elegant, streamlined form, and the "tail" arching from its hind to its base, as if the bear were emerging from, and of from the ice, and/or suggesting a transformation, common to Inuit representation.
8 1/4" l x 4 3/8" t x 2 3/8" wide (base). Excellent condition, not a flaw that I can see, and more radiant in person.
