I bought this bird from an oddities collector about a year ago. Even within the realm of his collection, it was a bit strange. He told me he bought it from an (antique?) shop in San Rafel, CA in the 1980s but even the owner had no clue about it's history.
A photo of the bird was casually passed along to a dealer in American Native arts, he confirmed it was not work of a US/Canadian/Arctic circle tribe. A relative of mine remarked that one of the bird's decorative motifs reminded her of Maori work, so I sent photos off to several NZ museums. I recieved a response from a member of the Auckland War Memorial Museum about a week ago- "Although the carving references a koru/fern frond motif, it is not of Maori origin, and not recognisable to Museum Collection staff as any kind of ‘traditional’ Polynesian style of carving."
Of course, it would be nice to know how much the bird is worth for bare insurance purposes but the bis question for me is... what *is* it?
