Exquisite Antique Wood and Hide Inuit Doll, 14 Inches mother dog and puppies I've included a short video

I've included a short video for your viewing pleasure

and I've come to really love the effect

What makes them most distinctive and interesting to me--in addition to the elaborate framework he constructed around them--are the backgrounds that set them off

or sometimes "persuader"--likely dates to the early 19th century

I know from the seller in Virginia I purchased this from that it came from the personal collection of a senior curator at the Smithsonian who died about 15 years ago

Exquisite Antique Wood and Hide Inuit Doll, 14 Inches mother dog and puppies I've included a short videoOne of the most beautiful Inuit dolls I've ever seen or dolls, period and quite an old one, late 19th c. Greenland Inuit I think, and, I believe, what would be considered a "collector's doll" made by a skilled doll maker for sale. Such a wonderfully carved, sensitively detailed face, with head that will turn side to side; body sewn of seal skin and, it appears to me, stuffed with what looks to be white fur, I believe seal as well. Perhaps he once wore