Carved Ivory Fire Starter

Carved Native starting a fire by Leonard Savage. Leonard Savage is a Deg Xit’an/Athabaskan carver, originally from the village of Holy Cross, in Interior Alaska. Leonard is a prolific carver who specializes in walrus ivory and moose horn. He comes from an artistic family that includes his late mother, the celebrated doll and basket maker, Ellen Savage (1919-2004), and his sister, Dorothy Savage, known for her birch bark baskets and fancy pin cushions. What sets Leonard’s carvings apart from his Inupiaq and Yup’ik contemporaries is the level of realism he incorporates into his carvings, rather than the sleek stylization associated with contemporary Inupiaq and Yup’ik ivory carving. This carving features an Alaska Native man in a parka, sitting with crossed legs, who is using a bow drill to start a fire. The man is sitting in front of a pile of firewood that his carved out of ivory. The entire composition is mounted on an oval slice of walrus ivory.