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Description

Horn dish with incised linear design and a small perforation at the handle. [ZM 14/11/2005]

Longer Description

Horn dish with incised linear design and a small perforation at the handle. The dish is shaped like a large scoop with a bevelled edge and extended flat handle on one end. The end of the handle is squared, and there is a perforation. Along the edge/rim of the vessel is an incised pattern comprised of three parallel lines that extend upward at an angle, and then downward at angle, repeatedly. On the outside of the spoon, a single line is incised just below the rim. The inside and outside of the dish is smooth and the grain of the horn is clearly visible. [CAK 19/04/2010]

Primary Documentation

Accession book entry (for 1891.49.62 - .71): From Rev. Ch. Harrison, 80 Halton Rd, Canonbury Sq. N. Collection of Haida objects collected by him.... - [1 of] 10 horn dishes. £45. [Purchase price includes 1891.49.1-110]

Accession book entry [Red numbers] - Containers other than pottery 104 A - L - (104.I.12) Dish for grease and berries of Rocky Mountain go[at's] sheep's horn, deeper than the last examples [i.e. 1891.49.62, .63, .64] the ends produced higher, one end being continued into a well marked handle, a slight ornamnetation of incised lines outside and in. Haida, Queen Charlotte Id. Obtd. by Rev. C. Harrison. Purchased from him 1891. Drawing opposite.

No additional information on catalogue cards. [JC 4 9 1996]

Written on object - [near handle] 104.I.12; [on outside of bowl] 104.I.12 DISH FOR GREASE AND BERRIES. HAIDA. C. HARRISON COLLN. PURCHASED 1891. [CAK 05/05/2009]

Related Documents File - The Haida Project Related Documents File contains video of research sessions and interviews with Haida delegates from September 2009 as part of the project ‘Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge'. It also includes post-visit communications that discuss object provenance. For extensive photographic, video, and textual records documenting the Haida research visit as a whole, including but not limited to preparations of objects for handling, travel logistics, British Museum participation, transcribed notes from research sessions and associated public events held at PRM, see the Haida Project Digital Archive, stored with the Accessions Registers. Original hand-written notes taken during research sessions have been accessioned into the Manuscripts collection, in addition to select other materials.[CAK 02/06/2010]

Research Notes

The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum's collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:
This vessel was viewed alongside other horn and wood dishes on Wednesday Sept 9, 2009. This dish shares some characteristics with 1891.49.63, .64, .66 and .69. Lucille Bell observed that the holes in these dishes may function in the same way as the holes in the handles of spoons, along the dishes to be hung on a wall when not in use. Diane Brown wondered if the hole in the dish indicated where a rivet would have been, and that the dish was actually a spoon missing its handle. Gwaai Edenshaw offered that rivets were used after something had been broken, and that originally they would have been one piece. Delegates wondered if these scoop-shaped horn vessels were used for drinking out of. Vern Williams identified the horn as coming from a ram, i.e. a male mountain sheep, because 'growth rings' were visible in the spoon, a feature known to occur with male mountain goats. He wondered if the mountain sheep was Dall sheep, and noted that there are three kinds of mountain sheep found in British Columbia. Kwiaahwah Jones and Nadine Wilson compared the geometric designs incised on the spoon with weaving patterns. The 'mountain' shape, formed by two lines angled towards each other, was identified by Kwiaahwah as the designs 'mouth track of the wood worm' and 'all of our ancestors'. Nadine noted that the 'mountain' shape occurs in Raven's Tail weaving. [CAK 19/04/2010]

Although listed as a bowl, the object may be the ladle of a spoon given its general shape, lack of flat bottom and the extension of one end, onto which a handle may be attached. [CAK 05/05/2009]

Item History

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