Hearing of Bill Jamieson’s death
yesterday was about as shocking an
occurrence as can be imagined in this
business. Still a young man, truly, and
a man whose importance to collecting and
“spreading the word” had yet to be fully
felt, his passing leaves a hole at least
10X larger in the business than the
enormous hoard of attractions he leaves
behind. I first met Bill (or Billy, as
many knew him) care of the late director
of the Mutter Museum, Gretchen Worden
(another who died way too young and at
the height of her accomplishments), who
asked me whether I knew “the guy in
Toronto who collects shrunken heads.” I
didn’t know it at the time, but it was
the beginning of a wild ride for me with
“Billy.”
While in our years of friendship, I
wasn’t in Bill’s company as much as I’d
like to have been (though there was
plenty of contact otherwise), the one
time I was at his place typified for me
our near 20 year friendship. His condo –
an entire floor of an old
factory/warehouse in a gorgeous
neighborhood in Toronto – you got to by
elevator, which opened into what felt
like a gallery in the wildest
Smithsonian oddities hall you could
imagine. Tribal head trophies, feathered
capes, shrunken heads, South Pacific
weaponry, all of it making for a
Ripley’s-like experience if ever one
could be had outside those
establishments. The entire vast condo
space was arrayed as the museum show it
truly was, as Bill had some few years
prior purchased the entire Niagara Falls
Museum (the last museum extant which had
been in direct competition with Barnum’s
American Museum).
And true to Bill’s vision, his vast
condo had been transformed into the
museum of his and every collector’s
dream: every square inch cased or
arrayed with attractions, the entry hall
given over entirely to floor-to-ceiling
amazement. And then you reached the far
end, where his condo dropped and
dropped, into the recesses of the
building. As he put it, in his end of
the condo deal, he’d gotten the old
freight elevator shaft, easily large
enough to hold a truck, now outfitted
with an equally vast wooden spiral
staircase. And that staircase took you
not just into the bowels of his
collection but through even more layers
– step by descending step – of cased
attractions. At bottom were all the
freak animals, the oddities, and his
“live-in taxidermist” and restorer.
Nothing halfway about Bill Jamieson.
So here he is, a guy who, by this humble
collector’s estimation, had it all. And
had a ton & ½ of it displayed. And he
was miffed. Good naturedly, but still.
At me. And why? Because in my first trip
to Toronto since I’d met him, I’d set up
to stay elsewhere and hadn’t hit him up
to stay there with him and the
collection. Honestly, I’d thought it
rude to ask, to put him out by asking
the favor; stupid me: It was rude not to
expect his boundless generosity. Of all
the things – and his many generosities
that followed – I’ll remember that best.
And with the fondest sadness.
James
Taylor
7-4-11
'Bye Billy
Now, it has to be explained that
Billy Jamieson
was no ordinary collector, specializing
as he did in Egyptian mummies, antique
shrunken heads and all sort of bizarre
ethnographic art and artifacts. His
condo is literally filled with human
skulls, bones and macabre accoutrements.
With a long history of supplying the
bizarre tastes of rock stars and
celebrities, his company, Jamieson
Tribal Art, had recently been working on
a television series for the History
Channel featuring items from his
collection and his adventures as a
collector. Let's just say that he has
definitely led the life-less-ordinary
and leave it at that.
Sue
Prent - Green Mountain Daily
u
Billy Jamieson is a classic rebel. He is
a modern-day treasure hunter, an ancient
and tribal arts collector and dealer.
Part P. T. Barnum, part Indiana Jones,
he searches the world for these oddities
and curiosities and the historical
stories behind them.
This week Toronto
suffered a massive loss with the
untimely death of William Jamieson.
Known to his friends as Billy, Jamieson
was one of the world's foremost
collectors of tribal art and ancient
artifacts. He died at his home in
downtown Toronto on Sunday.
The Ministry of Artistic
Affairs was
scheduled to visit
Jamieson's remarkable museum-home in
October of this year but now sadly
mourns the loss of this most interesting
of gentlemen.
In addition to being a highly respected
dealer and collector of objects from
cultures around the world, particularly
the South Pacific, Indonesia, Africa,
and the native peoples of the Americas,
Jamieson was well-known for his
collection of oddities and curiosities.
Reflecting his fascination with the
macabre, he will be perhaps most
remembered for the real human shrunken
heads he collected from the headhunter
and cannibal cultures of the South
Pacific.
Jamieson traveled the world for most of
his adult life and through these
fieldwork missions gained direct
experience with many native cultures,
such as the Shuar of Ecuador and Peru
and the Irian Jaya of the West Papua
province of Indonesian New Guinea. These
experiences lead to work consulting for
the National Geographic Society on their
educational series about headhunting,
human sacrifice and cannibalism. He was
completing the first season of a series
for the History Television when he died.
His collection of information, hand
crafted tribal weaponry, ceremonial
clothing, real human shrunken heads and
other artifacts of the Shuar is one of
the greatest depositories of information
about this tribe in the world. He also
leaves behind a remarkable archive of
ethnographic material about the native
cultures of North and South America, the
Dayak of Borneo, the Naga of the
Highlands of India and the Batak of
Sumatra.
In 1999 Jamieson purchased the Niagara
Falls Museum which was established in
1827 but had fallen into disrepair and
closure by the time of his acquisition.
Nine Egyptian mummies that had been in
the museum’s collections since 1861 were
included in the massive catalog of
materials. After Jamieson sold these
Egyptian artifacts to the Michael C.
Carlos Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, it
was confirmed that one of the mummies
was that of the missing Pharaoh, Ramses
I. After this confirmation by
Egyptologists, Ramses I was repatriated
back to Egypt where a museum was built
to house the mummy in Luxor.
A highly social character who radiated
friendly energy, Jamieson hosted annual
Halloween parties that were legendary in
Toronto for the manner in which they
brought together disparate downtown
social networks; transvestites, artists,
curators, Rosedale collectors, horror
film production crews and aficionados,
celebrities, historians, lawyers,
financiers, real estate moguls,
fashionistas, dancers, prostitutes,
bikers, beer drinkers and hellraisers
would pack his sprawling 8,000
square-foot multi-level condo during
these raucous parties, 100% of whom were
dressed up in elaborate costumes.
Bill Jamieson was a truly unique
individual. Kind, creative, successful,
adventurous, open-minded, non-judgmental
and highly enthusiastic, he followed his
curiosity to the most remote jungles of
the world and returned with stories and
tools for learning that he shared
generously with us all. His unexpected
death is a shock to the Toronto art
community of which he was an intimate
ally, member and supporter, and we are
all reeling from the terrible news.
The Ministry of Artistic Affairs wishes
to send his family and all who loved
Billy our most heartfelt condolences.
By
Randy Gladman
Master of the
Macabre" Bill Jamieson, Toronto Canada,
standing next to a Nazca Mummy from Peru
(in case). Jamieson who usually exhibits
at least one shrunken head solved the
problem of continuously explaining the
process of "head shrinking" to visitors
as he augmented distribution of
pamphlets detailing the process.
(not
to be attempted at home)
