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The Great Plains grizzly bear has been extinct for over 100 years but when this species was abundant, a grizzly claw necklace was a coveted goal and prized possession. The wearer was regarded as brave and as one who possessed great medicine. The number of claws signified the number of grizzly bears a hunter had confronted. Only the front claws were used so twenty claws meant the wearer had met with at least two grizzlies, no small feat since the grizzly could take a bullet (or two!) and still keep charging. Of course a necklace could also be won in battle, as the reward for killing an enemy who wore it.
The claws would be mounted on a core which was then covered in otter fur. When Plains grizzlies became rare, necklaces were made from Rocky Mountain grizzlies or the claws would be carved from elk antler, a painstaking and exacting process that earned nearly as much respect as trophy claws from a bear killing.
Sold for $42,500, this Z.S. Liang painting was the top-seller at the 2010 National Museum of Wildlife Art’s largest annual fundraiser.
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Z.S. Liang, born in China in 1953 and raised in a family of artists, published
his first painting at age 6 in a children’s magazine. His art education
spanned two continents, beginning at the Central Academy of Fine Art in
Beijing and continuing to the Massachusetts College of Art and Boston
University. His award-winning paintings hang in both corporate and private
collections around the world and several of his murals are permanently on
display in New York City.
His works are in corporate and private collections throughout the
United States and many other countries, including Sheraton Corporation,
Marriott Corporation, Weseda University Tokyo and the West Point Museum. Among
the many awards Liang has received are the Best of Show and People’s Choice at
the American Society of Portrait Artists, the Arthur Ross Award for Painting
at the Classical America New York, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Award for
Painting at the Society of American Illustrators. Liang’s paintings have been
featured in the Artist’s Magazine and the International Artists.
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