CANADA: potlatch shield piece (10.14g), Opitz p.265-70 (plate example), 33 x 71mm fragment from a copper shield, exchanged along with blankets, canoes, fish oil and other items during the potlatch ceremony of various tribes of the Pacific Northwest, VF, ex Charles Opitz Collection. The potlatch was a fundamentally competitive gift-giving ceremony among the indigenous people of the Canadian Pacific Northwest. Through the gifting, or sometimes outright destruction of one's own property (e.g., slashing up one's otter pelts, killing one's slaves), an individual publicly displays his own wealth, thereby reaffirming both his horizontal lineage and vertical hierarchy of rank. These ceremonies, which can take many years to prepare, also allowed tribes to settle old debts and scores through such competitions in lieu of conflict and bloodshed.
Estimate: $200-250