This cedar panel carving depicts a Sisiutl, which is in many of the cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Sisiutl is a legendary creature consisting on a supernatural being at the center, flanked by sea monsters, in Kwakwaka’wakw Salish art.

This carving measures 38 x 12, priced at $825.

From Wikipedia: Artifacts commonly adorned with Sisiutl include masks, “flying” props, power boards (dance boards), totem poles, clubs, knives, whistles, house beams, button blankets, setee, drums, wooden belts, pectoral ornaments, headdresses, frontlets, feast bowls, and canoe decorations.

Images or sculptures of Sisiutl were employed to guard canoes and cedar plank longhouses (the Sisiutl sculpture guarding one such house was said to flick its tongues as people approached). Warriors traditionally wear the sisiutl’s emblem for protection in battle.

The word for “sisiutl” in Tsimshian is Laqaqua’sa, which literally means “both sides head”.