Mammoth and elephant tusks, walrus bone and sperm whale teeth have been considered noble materials and used for carvings since ancient times. Due to their malleability and decorative possibilities, they attracted Yakut craftsmen. In the artisans’ hands, this fossil material, sometimes more than 30 thousand years old, was given a new life and incarnated in art works.

The carved figure “Dog sled” was acquired from its creator, Semyon Nikolayevich Pesterev, in 1978. This piece is one of the most unique exhibits of the Churapchinsky Museum. The collection also includes some works by Semyon Pesterev’s pupils.

Semyon Pesterev was the Honored Artist of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Laureate of the RSFSR State Prize named after Ilya Repin, and Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR.

The future artist was born in the 2nd Melzhekhsinskiy settlement of the Churapchinsky district of the Yakutsk district of the Irkutsk governorate on August 15, 1917.

Semyon Pesterev began to work in bone carving in 1947. His key themes are hunting, dog and reindeer sleds, forest life of animals, horse and reindeer herds. His works include “Wolves Attacking a Reindeer”, “Bear Hunting”, “A Fishing Bear”, “Collective Farm Herd”, “Cranes at Rest”, “Reindeer on the Crossing”.

Semyon Pesterev’s works are housed in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), museums located in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and other Russian regions, as well as abroad.

Throughout his life Semyon Nikolayevich was an active teacher. He worked as a methodologist at the House of Folk Art, a school teacher, and ran the “Young Bone Carver” club at the Palace of Pioneers in Yakutsk. Between 1960 and 1972, he taught bone carving at the Yakutsk Art College.

In his brochures “Tips for young bone carvers” in 1968 and “Tips for craftsmen” in 1972, Semyon Pesterev wrote about the history of bone carving craft, the origins of folk decorative patterns, about practical methods of processing and storing mammoth tusk and about the experience of pedagogical work with children.