FIGURES & DOLLS
Antique and Contemporary
​Native American Sculpture

featuring work by
Rhonda Holy Bear

July 5 - September 18, 2021

Rhonda Holy Bear, "Arapaho Ghost Dance Figure", 2021; 24"

​John Molloy Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition and sale of Native American Figures & Dolls featuring the work of contemporary Lakota artist Rhonda Holy Bear.

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​Ms. Holy Bear’s work has been exhibited at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian, and Santa Fe’s Wheelwright Museum, among others. Her Arapaho Ghost Dance Figure is one of a series of such figures distinguished by the beautifully painted garments over a fully sculpted body. Ms. Holy Bear first learned doll making as a child from her grandmother, Angeline Holy Bear, and continues to honor her ancestors through her work.

Rhonda Holy Bear, "Arapaho Ghost Dance Figure", 2021; 24"

​Dolls are the oldest known toys and there are surviving examples in Egypt that date to as early as 2000 B.C.  The Native Americans made dolls for their own pleasure long before the advent of the Europeans.  Unfortunately, there are no surviving examples from North America of that era. It is generally believed that these dolls were ephemeral in nature, made from organic materials that didn’t survive.​

Apache Society Doll, last quarter 19th century; 14”
Hide body with beaded design; beads are very small and attached with sinew; red ochre painted arms; moccasin toes are upturned, typically Apache. This doll has a spectral presence unlike others. Earrings are attached to the hide ears with sinew.
$4,500

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Apache Society Doll, last quarter 19th century; 14”

Ute Doll with Baby Cradle; late 19th century; 7.25”
Doll has cloth dress and leggings and hide fringe; baby dreidel is made of hide and is 4.5” - a unique addition that is intrinsically attached to this doll.
$4,500

Pair of Modoc Dolls, last quarter 19th century
Male is 15.25”; Female is 14.75”
$12,500

This is an exceptional pair of Modoc dolls (Male 15.25”; Female 14.75”)  as each doll has a distinctive face and personality.  There are many distinguishing characteristics that place this pair above others - the beaded moccasins, the face paint and  hats — the female wears a beautiful basketry example, the male hat is fashioned with brain tanned hide — the greasy yellow beads on the dress indicate a date of the 1870’s;  the use of red beads to form the lips, the large black beads for the eyes, the sculpture of the hide faces & heads — all this attention to detail creates a pair that speak to us some 140 years after they were made.

Male Modoc Doll

Female Modoc Doll

Pair of Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Dolls, circa 1870's; 6.25"
$3,600

Southern Cheyenne Doll, end of 19th century, 9.5"
Doll is wearing cloth dress and yoke; beaded necklace; and horsehair. Drawn facial features have faded with age. The yoke is painted with yellow ochre as would be a hide example. The way the fringe has been carefully added and cut shows the attention to detail that imbues the whole doll and adds to its charm.
$3,600

Blackfeet Male Doll; end of the 19th century; 11”
Doll has a hide outfit on cloth body with cloth breechclout; hide is painted with yellow ochre; beadwork is thread sewn.
SOLD

 The earliest known examples of ‘fancy dolls’ were made in the North East near the end of the 18th century and fashioned with wax heads which were European made. 
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By the 1880’s, Native American communities throughout the United States were making dolls in their traditional dress for their children to play with and as a sale item to non-Natives wishing to commemorate a trip or seeking to better understand the ways of the Native community.

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Micmac Doll; circa 1840's; 13.5"
$12,000

Mescalero Apache Female Doll; circa 1900 - 1910; 10.5”
This doll is elaborately garbed in beaded hide dress and yoke; see a similar doll illustrated in American Indian Art magazine Winter 2013, pg. 59, that is in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
SOLD

Cree Doll; circa 1930's-1940's; 10”
This fully dressed carved wooden doll is from the Rocky Boy Reservation in Northern Montana, and probably was sold in the Cooperative Crafts Shop at the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning, Montana, according to John Ewers in his classic Plains Indian Sculpture, p. 192.
$1,800

Haudenosaunee Doll; circa 1870; 12"
This doll has a cloth costume over a stuffed cloth body with cornhusk hands and painted cornhusk face; attributed to Mary Ann Bread. Ms. Bread was the daughter of Daniel Bread, the head man responsible for the Oneida relocating to Wisconsin in the 1830’s. Ms. Bread was a registered nurse and was known for wearing the traditional garb of her people as well as her skill at making dolls.
$2,400

Inuit Amulet Figure; 1870's; 5.5"
This carved wooden figure has a red white heart pony bead encrusted as a power ornament, indicating that it was made no later than the 1870's.
SOLD

Lakota Female doll; late 19th century; 13.5”
This doll was collected by Amos H. Gottschall in the 1890’s from the Lakota near White River, South Dakota. Doll's dress, leggings and moccasins are painted with yellow ochre and the doll has horse hair.
SOLD

Two Dolls Collected by Amos H. Gottschall
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Amos H. Gottschall was a traveller, author, collector and entrepreneur. While still in his teens, he left home in Pennsylvania and began a trip across the continent. He made four trips across the United States over a period of twelve years, frequently staying in Native American communities and developing friendships among the people. He learned the Lakota (Sioux) language and appeared to have spent more time among the various bands of these people than any other group. He collected Native American objects from 1871 until 1905. He labelled every one of the many hundreds of objects he collected, listing the name of the group and where it was collected. For example, this doll has a tag which reads “Sioux near White River, S. Dak.’

​In his book “Travels From Ocean To Ocean, and From The Lakes To The Gulf”, Gottchall narrates his experiences in his journeys and his time in the Native American communities. In this narration, he makes particular emphasis of the medicinal rituals and herbal practices among the people he stayed with. In 1881, he established Gottschall Remedies which operated until 1915. On his trips, he frequently sold his patent medicines to the Native people. 

​He also wrote over 50 religious books and pamphlets, all based in the Christianity of his era.  His great publication “Priced and Descriptive Catalogue of the Utensils, Implements, Weapons, Ornaments, Etc of the Indians, Mound Builders, Cliff Dwellers’ was printed in 1909 and dispersed this large collection of all documented material that was collected in the early years of colonial settlement and is an important ingredient in the available literature of the era that firmly establishes the historical fact of the marketplace in Native American Art.

Arapaho Male Doll; late 19th century; 13”
This doll was collected by Amos H. Gottschall before 1905 at Wind River, WY from the Arapaho. Doll features horsehair and some face paint.
SOLD