Tiny Cherokee Carving of Woman Holding Bowl by Watty antique circus who also points to one

who also points to one in the Gettysburg Museum collection

I love the ambiguity of this image

with a few small hairline cracks around the neck of the crane on side 1 and one scrape to the surface of the lower section of the planter on side 2

still lives

Tiny Cherokee Carving of Woman Holding Bowl by Watty antique circus who also points to oneA quick search led me learn that the "Watty" who signed this tiny carving was Cherokee carver Wahdih Watty Chiltoskie (1897 1973), who came from a family of carvers. There is not a lot out there about him, but I've included a photo of him at work. Among the few examples of his carvings that I've found, this tiny woman is definitely my favorite, looking wonderfully serene and grounded, with her seated body itself feeling rather like a bowl for the bowl