Accession Number

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Material

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Acquired

PRM Source

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Description

Rectangular wood dish with wide flat flanges for lifting at either end. [MJD 05/05/2009]

Longer Description

Rectangular wood dish with wide flat flanges for lifting at either end. The dish has a crack through the centre which has been repaired with two metal staples. [MJD 05/05/2009]

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 dish was viewed alongside other wood and horn dishes on Wednesday Sept 9, 2009. Delegates wonder if this could be a set along with 1891.49.45. They believed they could have been done by the same artist. As with 1891.49.45, delegates thought this dish looked unfinished and hastily made. Christian White thought it was a model: he noted that long dishes are models of larger bowls used for serving fish. Gwaai wondered if it was used for cooking, and Nika Collison wondered if the beveled edge was an attempt to stop overflowing during cooking. Lucille Bell thought that long rectangular dishes such as this one would be terrific for serving seaweed, berries, or dried fish, but not for serving oolachan grease. Billy Yovanovich and Gwaai Edenshaw identified the material as alder. They noted in particular that when alder dries out it turns an orange-ish colour, and that alder was commonly used for food vessels as it does not taint the food. See also Research Notes for 1891.49.45. [CAK 12/04/2010]

Primary Documentation

Accession book entry (for 1891.49.45 and .46): 'From Rev. Ch. Harrison, 80 Halton Rd, Canonbury Sq. N. Collection of Haida objects collected by him.... - [1 of] 2 Wooden stone-boiling dishes. £45. [Purchase price includes 1891.49.1-110]
Additional accession book entry (LMC): 'No decoration.

?Accession book entry [Red numbers] - Containers other than pottery 104 A - L - (104 G 19) Food dish of wood, in one piece, flat bottomed, the sides diverging upwards, the ends produced as flat wide flanges for lifting, inside hollowed to a rectangular form, with raised edge running round it and over hanging lip. Haida, Queen Charlotte Islands. Obtd. by Rev. C. Harrison. Purchased from him 1891. March. v[ide]. Niblack.

Catalogue cards have: 'Wooden stone boiling dish similar to 1891.49.45 but with no decoration on ends.' [JC 4 9 1996]

Pitt Rivers Museum label - CANADA BRITISH COLUMBIA QUEEN CHARLOTTE IS. HAIDA Wooden stone boiling dish Purch. Rev. C. Harrison [MJD 05/05/2009]

Written on object - WOODEN ... [illegible] BOILING ROOTS BERRIES ETC WITH HOT STONES HAIDA C. HARRISON COLL (M.S. No 21) PURCHASED 1891 [MJD 5/5/2009]

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]