Native Alaska Rosalie Paniyak Vintage Doll

Rosalie Paniyak (1934-2007), a famous Yup'ik dollmaker from Chevak, Alaska, created this superb female doll. Rosalie was the matriarch of her renowned doll-making family. She referred to her dolls as "the uglies" but they are now in museums and collections around the world. Rosalie is featured in the exhibit catalog published by the Alaska Council of the Arts "Eskimo Dolls." (We've shown the cover of the catalog with one of her dolls on it and a page from the catalog, too). Some of her dolls are on display at the Smithsonian and she also presented one of her dolls to the President George H.W. Bush. She began her doll making in the 1950's and was still making them into the late 1980's.

This doll has all the distinctive characteristics of Rosalie's dolls. Her face is wrinkled sealskin, with a hand-stitched, applied nose that's long and pointed, as is her chin. Her teeth and eyes are made of white and black glass beads. Her wispy white hair is covered with a flowered scarf that has a double ruff of white arctic hair fur and brown seal fur.

The doll's dress has the repeating diamond pattern often used in native Alaska fabrics. It's hand sewn together, with the clever use of the striped selvage for the hem. She is holding a sealskin cup and saucer, one in each of her black leather hands. Her stuffed body and legs are a gray ribbed knit material and she sports spotted sealskin mukluks with sealskin soles.

This charming folk art doll was made to pose in a sitting position but stretched out she is 19 inches long. Her sitting height is 11 inches, she measures 6 inches across the chest and weighs 3/4 of a pound. Tied to her right arm is a tag certifying this doll as an "AUTHENTIC NATIVE HANDICRAFT FROM ALASKA" with the original price of $250.00 on the back of the tag. (Rosalie Paniyak only very rarely signed her dolls.) This Alaskan doll by Rosalie Paniyak is in excellent, like-new condition.

✧✧ Please note: The scraps of animal skins used on this doll were legally harvested by the Alaska Native hunters to use for food, art and handicrafts.

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