Important Alaska Eskimo doll family
by Ethel Washington


Ethel Washington was born in 1889 and died in 1968. Her Inupiaq name was Napatuktoo. She started making dolls, in the Eskimo skin sewing tradition, to sell to people in Kotzebue Alaska in the 1930's. Her work is legendary and was so meticulous that she could make only a few dolls each year, hence their great rarity.

Ethel Washington's doll family: the father, mother, and child. The faces are hand carved from birch. Wonderful condition. Compare this family to the Ethel Washington dolls in the various Alaska museums and you'll see that here is some of her very finest work. An Ethel Washington masterpiece!

For more information on Ethel Washington see 
"Ethel Washington: The Life and Times of an Eskimo Doll Maker" (Alaska Historical Commission studies in history: 31)
by Basil Hedrick (former director of the University of Alaska Museum).

Price, questions? email me at dick@AlaskaWanted.com

These dolls will be shipped by Registered Mail.
Ethel Washington Eskimo dolls
Ethel Washington Eskimo dolls
 Ethel Washington Eskimo dolls
Ethel Washington Eskimo dolls
 Ethel Washington Eskimo dolls
Ethel Washington Eskimo dolls Ethel Washington Eskimo dolls
Ethel Washington Eskimo dolls



"She was by far the best of these artists,
and frequently patterned the features of the dolls
after real people whom she knew; they show a warmth
and vitality rarely seen in 'primitive art' of this type.
Ethel spent so much time on the meticulous detail
of the dolls that her output was never prolific,
and when finally completed, it would be eagerly
snapped up by collectors."
                                                                       Dr. Frederick J. Dockstader



Beware of supposed "Ethel Washington" dolls in major auction houses over the past few years.
Most of these inferior dolls were not made by Ethel Washington, and the low prices realized show that fact!



For sale: original Ethel Washington eskimo doll.


Alaska Eskimo doll
by Ethel Washington

This is a nice example of her work.  11" tall doll with hand-carved wood face.
It won first place in the antique Eskimo doll competition at a recent national convention.
This doll also includes the highly important original receipt from June 19, 1945, from the United States Department of the Interior, Alaska Indian Service arts & crafts program.

 Good condition.

Price, questions? email me at dick@AlaskaWanted.com







For sale: original Ethel Washington eskimo doll.


For sale: original Ethel Washington eskimo doll.
Alaska Eskimo doll
by Ethel Washington

This is a nice example of her work.  9" tall doll with hand-carved wood face.
The mukluks have "U.S.I.O. Alaskan Eskimo" stamped on the soles. The U.S.I.O. was the "United States Indian Office" which was created on March 11, 1824, by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, who appointed Thomas L. Mckenney as the first head of the office, who preferred to call it the "Indian Office," hence the U.S.I.O.  In the 1940's and 1950's the U.S.I.O had an Alaska Indian arts and crafts program that produced price lists and catalogs selling Alaska Native crafts to help get some much needed cash into the villages. The U.S.I.O. later was re-named the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Mckenney was fired in 1830 when president Andrew Jackson disagreed with his opinion that “the Indian was, in his intellectual and moral structure, our equal.”

 Good condition.

Price, questions? email me at dick@AlaskaWanted.com
For sale: original Ethel Washington eskimo doll.
 For sale: original Ethel Washington eskimo doll.






Ethel Washington:
The Life and Times of an
Eskimo Doll Maker
by
Basil C. Hedrick & Susan Pickel-Hedrick.
Published in 1983.

Good condition. Scarce book. 24 pages.
[shelf locator: my personal Alaska Native bookcase]

SOLD
 For sale: Ethel Washington: The Life and Times of an Eskimo Doll Maker.


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