Box Item Number: 1928.965 from the MAA: University of Cambridge
Description
Painted wooden box, which the catalogue card notes as a fine specimen . The top of the box has operculum shells set in three groups of six. These shells were originally identified as Cariboo teeth but later corrected by Paul Sant Cassia (081986) to be operculum. The box has substantial painting on two sides, and simple enclosed side profile face designs with thin vertical lines following the corners on the other two. The substantial designs are slightly different on each side, one having black cross-hatching. The designs have thin formlines supported by red secondary lines which are distanced and positioned to give the painting an overall lightness.; Good
Context
Bill McLennan of the University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology, noted the box was probably Haida (061992). The similarity of this box to one illustrated in Bill Holm' s The Box of Daylight (University of Washington Press: Seattle, 1983) page 67, figure 101, from Hydaburg, suggests a Haida or Kaigani Haida provenance (G.Crowther). The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separate GLT fields.; The kerfed storage boxes are characteristic of the Northwest Coast and exhibit a very high degree of technical prowess. The boxes were made from one sheet of wood which had grooves cut where the corners were later made when the sheet was steamed into a square. The open side was either sewn together with Spruce root or pegged with wooden pegs. The lids were usually removable, while the bases were pegged onto the sides. The undecorated storage boxes were used as domestic items for everyday use, such as for storing food and berries. Some were watertight and were used for cooking, i.e. dropping heated rocks into the water to boil the contents. This is in contrast to the decorated, carved and/or painted boxes which were used in a ceremonial context. It was from such a box that the mythic Raven stole the sun and brought light to the world. The design on the box was produced in the highly abstract distributive style, whereby the identity of the creature was deliberately ambiguous. The ambiguity surrounding the identity of the creature would have enabled an owner to assert an identity appropriate to their own assemblage of crests, and therefore explains the ability for such decorated items to be traded without loss of crest items (G.Crowther).; Exhibited: Old anthropological displays at CUMAA, case 22, dismantled 081986.Exhibited: On display in 'Gifts and Discoveries', LKS Gallery from 25 May 2012- 17 February 2013, R.Hand
Item History
- Made in British Columbia, Canada
- Received from R.S. Newall during 1928
What
- Name
- Box
- Identification Number
- 1928.965
- Type of Item
- box
- Material
- wood, cedar wood, shell and paint
Who
- Culture
- Haida ?
- Received from
- R.S. Newall
Where
- Holding Institution
- MAA: University of Cambridge
- Made in
- British Columbia, Canada
When
- Acquisition Date
- during 1928
Other
- Keyword
- Containers; Ceremonial Objects