This page contains larger versions of the images which accompany the Billiken Lore article:



Figurine carved from whale jaw bone, three inches high.  Cast iron bank, six and a half inches high overall
About 1960. Provenience unknown.                                        The billiken is four inches high. Made in 1908.



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Incense burner of clay.                                                            Glass bottle, four and a half inches high.  1908                     
Four inches high and made in 1908.                                   In the collection of Gloria F. Huntington.




Salt and pepper shakers. Ceramic, three and a half               Joss figurine of alabaster.
inches high. Made in Japan, 1966.                                              Total height, five and a half inches. 1908.

Tape measure case, plastic, two and a half inches high.     Brass pin. The billiken figure is an inch and a half high
Made in Japan in the 1960's.                                                       Probably 1908.




Jigsaw puzzle of cardboard, five and a half by                           Mold, of tin, two and a half inches high. 1972
three and a half inches. 1908.



Cover of box for billiken puzzle. Cardboard. 1908.               Left, figurine carved from mammoth ivory two
                                                                                                        inches high, purchased in Wrangell about 1920. 
                                                                                                        Right, pendant of nephrite, purchased in 
                                                                                                        Whitehorse, Yukon, 1965

 

Figurines. Left, walrus ivory with natural coloration,               Figurine, soapstone, three inches high
an inch and five-eighths high.                                                     Made by Ben Saclamana
Purchased in Nome, 1946.                                                          probably in Anchorage
Right, walrus ivory. Nome, 1961.                                                Purchased in Seattle, 1972.



Figurine carved from a sperm whale tooth                           Wooden figurine, nine inches high.
and artificially dyed. Three and a half inches tall.                Date and provenience unknown.
Made by Thomas Ekak for a commercial firm in
Seattle, 1959  



Pottery mug, three and an eighth inches high.                     Glass beads. The tallest is
Made by Tundra Pottery,                                                            one and three-eighths inches high.
Spenard, Alaska, 1958.                                                             Probably made in Czechoslovakia after 1940.



Sterling silver charms, 1973.                                                    Title page of the story, "The Sea Lion," showing
                                                                                                        the billiken illustrations which is repeated on
                                                                                                        each page of the story.

Garden statuette of concrete, 14 inches high. 1969.

Copyright 1974, 2005 and 2008 by Dorothy Jean Ray
Originally published in The Alaska Journal, (Winter 1974), pp. 25-31.
Copied and published in this form in 2008 by kind permission of the author’s son and heir, Eric Thompson.

Additional material copyright 2005 by Verbeck Smith.  Used here by kind permission of the author.

Special thanks to Verbeck Smith and Neil Smith for making the contents of billikenlore.com available to the Church of Good Luck

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