Black Horn Spoon

Item number E20616-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

FROM CARD: "HANDLE CARVED." FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "SPOON.---MADE OF GOAT'S HORN. HANDLE ORNAMENTED WITH CARVED TOTEMIC DESIGNS. BOWL RIVETED TO THE HANDLE. LENGTH, 9 1/2 INCHES, WIDTH, 2 3/8 INCHES. TSIMSHIAN INDIANS (TSIMSHIAN STOCK), PORCHER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA. COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN."This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=524, retrieved 4-24-2012: Spoon, Tsimshian. The handle of this feast spoon, which bears interlocking crest images of a person, bird, and wolf, was carved from mountain goat horn; the bowl is a separate piece of horn that was steamed and press-molded into shape. Several Tsimshian villages were particularly known for the manufacture of horn spoons; others specialized in wooden dishes, carved boxes, yellow cedar blankets, and foods such as soapberries, cranberries, crab apples, and dried salmon.