Regard De L’Arctique

Hermes Histoires de Carres . Autumn - Winter 2019

In winter and early spring, the light of the Far North reflected off the snow and ice has a rare intensity. To protect their eyes, the Inuits invented a long visor and goggles with small holes or narrow slits, allowing only a tiny amount of light to penetrate. This scarf depicts a collection of 19th-century visors and goggles against a decorative background typical of the region around the Bering Strait. The visors from the lower Yukon, Alaska and Kodiak Island are adorned with ivory, the tail feathers of Arctic ducks or walrus whiskers, while the goggles in walrus ivory are between 500 and 2,000 years old.