Footnotes

• Provenance:
  James Hooper Collection, U.K.; Mathias Komor Gallery, New York; Ulfert Wilke, artist and former Director, University of Iowa Museum of Art; descended through the family
  
  Ill:
  Wilke, Ulrich, 1975, p. 17, item 208
  
  In Ulfert Wilke's book An Artist Collects he describes a visit along with Max Granick in April, 1968, to the Komor Gallery of New York where he purchased this spoon. There is no mention of the Hooper Collection in his writing and it may well have escaped the attention of both men, however with close examination markings on the back of the ladle clearly illustrate this provenance. Under the right light one can just make out parts of the letters "HOOPER" along with other verbiage that matches up perfectly in handmanship, font size, paint color, use of upper case lettering, and spacing to that seen on the Hooper Northwest Coast dagger Bonhams offered on December 5, 2011, lot 4127. It is clearly by the same hand. As Wilke bought his spoon in 1968, well before the publication of the catalogue and famous series of auctions of Hooper's collection from 1976-82, it must be concluded that it left the collection prior to those dates.

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Category: Ethnographic Art / Native American

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