“Bentwood Chest”
This carved and painted wooden Haida burial chest, titled “Bentwood Chest,” was made by Charles Edenshaw, a folk and traditional indigenous artist from British Columbia, Canada. It was made around approximately 1870 and features a Beaver crest, one of the more important Haida Nation crests.
This chest was double the size of the traditional bentwood boxes and it was likely used by one of the Haida chiefs to store their costumes and regalia. These large chests were very important to the chiefs and were often passed down to their families after their deaths and served to protect their souls.
Bentwood objects are made by wetting the wood until it’s soft enough to bend, and then bending it into a new shape which it will dry and harden into. The indigenous groups of the North American west coast made traditional art pieces of bentwood boxes and chests like the one here. Usually, the wood was steamed before being bent into the shape of a box.
“Bentwood Chest” is currently in the collections of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineay, Québec, Canada.
For more on Charles Edenshaw, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
