North West Coast? Mask and 'Mask'.

I bought these for a song a few years ago from a Belgian dealer in African art. He knew they were not African. Are they genuine North West Coast, or North West Coast inspired Balinese?
If genuine, Haida and Tsimshian, something else? Possible artists, and value?
The bear mask is a proper mask, the rope at the back is made of plant fibre and passes through double holes in the sides, and it fits around the head.
The other one just has a screw at the back, with a synthetic cord. It does have the correct size and placement of the eyes and mouth for a wearable mask. The paint is more glossy than on the bear.
Thanks for looking.

 

Wonderful pictures!

I can't wait for the replies!!

 

Thanks Judy, it is slightly cloudy here, so the colour tone changes a bit with every picture.
I can't wait either. I like both of them, but since I paid so little it doesn't matter if they're not genuine.

 

But oh so much more meaningful if they are NWC.

 

Absolutely, although there are Native Americans who don't know much about tradition and just copy what everone else seems to be doing. They need to make a living.

 

They are both Indonesian carvings in the style of the Northwest Coast 1st Nations art.

It's easiest to just say ' it's my business to know ' but I'll give you a little more to go on.
From 1990 to 2002 I owned the finest contemporary Northwest Coast Indian art gallery on the eastern seaboard. I've been selling on eBay since 1998 but since then I've also been tracking the flood of Indonesian carvings in the NWC style that have shown up on eBay and in several fine auction house sales.

In your case the 2 designs were taken from known masks published in NWC art books.
The second , front cover of In The Spirit Of Mother Earth.....1994....and the copies started to come out soon after !!!
The 1st....I've seen this one so often....it no longer matters where it came from originally !!
That makes it easy to spot a fake, when the masks are variations of known works.
The other best way to spot a fake is the rear of the mask.
NWC carvers do not finish their masks in the smooth flat curve that Indonesians do. ( this takes a while to learn...)
The main type of off shore wood used is Albesia which has that tell tale open cell grain.
It shows up as either dots ( little spots where the grain ends) or straight broken lines which a light paint job can't hide.

Sure they're great carves of the front .....but in most cases they don't properly finish the reverse.....because they never saw photo's of it & don't understand or care how the back should be done !!!
( & fricken YAY for that...because over the past several years certain Indonesian artists are indeed getting the design painting down to an art form....no not their art form...but the formline is getting so accurate that ( like yours...) at a glance...they do indeed look authentic..!



These masks and carvings from Bali are everywhere.....and will continue to be a problem for honest sellers and buyers for years to come.
I have well over 1500 photo's of the fakes and new ones that I haven't seen before pop up on eBay monthly....even now I'm tracking a half dozen .

 

I wish I were your neighbor!!

 

You are.....I'm right here !!!

 

Amazing, thanks for sharing your knowledge here komokwa! Easy to see how most of us that don't know better would be fooled by these, I thought the 1st one might have been real with the pieces of shell in the eyes

 

What a display of treasures!
And that's only what we can see.

 

yer welcome...
that shell is available in Bali...as is the copper for the eyebrows....

 

Here Judy...now u can see some more.....

 

Wow, fabulous pieces!

 

do you see the moose caller , at the left , on top of the totem pole ?
do you know how to call a moose ?
...
...
...
" Here Moosey Moosey.......Here Moosey......!!!!!

 

Thanks, Komo, I suspected as much. Didn't know the backs were a dead giveaway. To me the copper looked funny too. I've never seen those thin corrugated strips on NWC masks.
Wonderful to see a bit of your collection again, gorgeous!

 

there are some photo's of the back of a genuine NWC mask on line.....
the day those indonesians get wise to that.....then we're all in trouble.

& here's something to think about......I've seen the fakes.....carved in real yellow cedar........

 

This world is getting more dangerous by the minute.
The Balinese should stick to their own stuff, it is nice enough when it comes from a good carver (see left). But of course the people who commision it are at fault, the carvers just want to earn a living in a third world country.

 

I did notice the totem pole, looks very nice. I've never seen a 'Moose Caller' before but I wondered what that was - is it made of bark? What is the bird bowl/dish piece on top of the box?

 

yup, birch bark.......it's not NWC.....more Cree !

it's a raven bowl....doug zilkie..

 

I was wondering about that one too, nice, Komo.