Well, I have been unsuccessful at the moment in tracking down the family history on the sash - but still working on it. Ancestory.com is a great website for genealogy - as is FamilySearch.org, a site run by the Church of the Later Day Saints.

While I am wading through those records, you may enjoy this.



last quarter 19th century
depicting images from the Bear Mother myth; a male bear holds captive an upside-down deceased human, noted by the hollowed eyes; the female bear, opposite, wears a frog headpiece while and a shaman's head tops the sculpture. Curio label The Indian Bazaar/ 36 Johnson Street/ Victoria, B.C. pasted on base, length 10.25" x width 2.75" x height 6.25".

The Indian Bazaar was established in 1884 by John J. Hart (1833-1900). Located at 36 Johnson Street, Hart and his then partner Jacob Isaacs remained there until 1889 when they moved to 43 Johnson Street. Hart died in 1900 and the shop closed in 1908. The curio trade was in demand throughout the late 19th century and during this time, Hart supplied numerous ethnographic pieces for the Chicago Wold's Fair in 1893 as well as other prominent collectors and ethnologists including Franz Boas (Tobe 1999:3-18; Brown 2000: 120-121).

1999 Tobe, Sarah.
"J.J. Hart on the Map". The Scribe: The Journal of the Jewish Historical Society of B.C. Volume XIX, No.1: Vancouver.

1998 Brown, Steven C.
Native Visions: Evolution in Northwest Coast Art from the Eighteenth through the Twentieth Century. Seattle: University of Washington Press.