HAND-WROUGHT GILT-COPPER AND FOSSIL IVORY BOOKENDS, CIRCA 1915-1918**

During the early years of the 20th century, Albert Berry designed and made hammered copper jewelry and table articles with Northwest motifs in his Alaska workshop. Berry traveled to the Yukon Territory as a gold speculator around 1905 and worked as a miner and hunter for several years, then settled in Juneau by 1913. His interest in local craftsmanship and folklore led Berry to create handcrafted objects which he offered for sale in his "Arts & Crafts Shop", where he touted using "Alaska artisans". His hammered copper designs often incorporated fossilized walrus and mammoth ivory, antlers and gold nuggets, as well as local artifacts. These bookends, for instance, use the head of an ancient axe as the vertical supports. Berry moved to Seattle in 1918, where he opened another shop and continued to sell similar wares until his death in 1949.