Shaman's Headdress
19th century
Evenk People (Evenki), Siberia
quilted felt, animal hair, and iron (blacksmith-forged)
height 13 in. (not including stand), diameter 7.5 in.
provenance: Joseph G. Gerena Fine Art, New York, 2011
Joseph G. Gerena (1949-2012) was a well-known and highly regarded dealer in ethnographic art, who was particularly expert in Siberian and Mongolian shamanic material. This Evenki Siberian headdress was one of his marquee pieces. Many objects with Mr. Gerena's provenance are now in museum collections in the USA, including, among others, the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Art Institute of Chicago. His obituary appeared in the March 2012 issue of Orientations magazine (Vol. 43, Nr. 2).
A Siberian headdress of this quality is extremely rare. No comparable headdress has appeared on the market since The Daulton Collection purchased this example from Joseph Gerena in 2011. It is truly a museum piece.
This headdress is generally cervid in form, with the two iron uprights representing the antlers of a reindeer. The iron appliques on the front of the headdress are in the forms of birds, in flight, probably geese or loons; they are spirit helpers and protectors of the shaman. See generally, Juha Pentikäinen, et al., eds., Shamans (Tampere, Finland: Tampere Museums Publications, 1998).
For another Evenki headdress of a related cervid type, see: S. Massari and G. Mazzoleni, Il Volo Dello Sciamano: Simboli ed Arte delle Culture Siberiane (Rome: De Luca Editori d'Arte, 2002), pgs. 96-97 and 201-202, catalogue no. 51 ("Corona de sciamano" -- shaman's crown), an example in the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg, RME Inv. 5589-39, from the area of Yeniseysk in eastern Siberia and dating from 1914.
