Peliken

Eskimo

1924

Animal derived materials: tooth: tusk: walrus

height 2.3; width 0.8

РЭМ 5705-4

Florence Pretz, American artist, is the author of the artistic image of the billiken, who patented it, and later sold her patent to the Chicago corporation The Billiken Company of Chicago. The character was named as Billy Ken, and soon gained distribution in all American states. The first figurine of a peliken in Alaska was made by an Inuit bone cutter in 1909 according to a brought sample. At first, bone carvers literally copied the original, but over time, the pelikenn began to acquire features specific to Inuit art. The figurine came to Chukotka from Alaska, and the name Billy Ken was adapted to the Chukchi language, which does not have a sonorous “b” sound. Currently, the peliken is perceived as one of the symbols of the Chukchi-Inuit art. In 2016, a monument to a peliken was erected in the Park of National Culture and Leisure in the village of Lavrentiy.