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Material

Process

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Acquired

PRM Source

Dimension

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Longer Description

Wooden halibut hook with bone barb, lashed with string and nailed, and decorated with bird and animal figures. The hook is carved from two pieces of wood that come together at an acute angle. The two pieces of wood have been nailed together and bound with string. One arm of the hook is carved from cedar and contains a bone barb that has been carved to a point and positioned such that the point faces the other arm. The barb has been lashed on with a thinner string. The second arm is carved from yew wood with a bird figure, showing head, beak, eyes, wings and feet. The wings have been decorated by burning. Below the bird is carved the head of an animal, perhaps a frog or fish: two round eyes are visible, as is a rounded nose, mouth and the suggestion of a tongue or teeth. Just above the bird's feet, the hook has been perforated and a length of cord inserted (probably to mimic the fishing line). The cord is knotted on either end. [CAK 26/06/2009]

Description

Wooden halibut hook with bone barb, lashed with string and nailed, and decorated with bird and animal figures. [CAK 26/06/2009]

Primary Documentation

Accession Book Entry - 'WELLCOME HISTORICAL MEDICAL MUSEUM, 28 PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON, W.1...1951.6.60 HAIDA INDIANS. Wooden halibut hook with bone bab lashed on (lashing done with poor trade string and a nail joins 2 halves of shank). Upper part of shank carved with bird. Max. length 24.4 cm. (28256)

There is no further information on the catalogue card. [CW 11 6 98]

Pitt Rivers Museum label - BRITISH COLUMBIA HAIDA INDIANS Halibut hook Gift of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum [MJD 02/04/2009]

Written on object - PS6[? or ?P86] 6 [inside a circle] [MJD 02/04/2009]

Related Documents File - Letter from E. Ashworth Underwood [Director, The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum] to T. K. Penniman dated 30 January, 1951, inviting the Pitt Rivers Museum to send a representative to select items from the Wellcome collection, housed temporarily at the British Museum. [GI 4/2/2002]

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 hook was viewed alongside other fish hooks on Monday Sept 14, 2009. Christian White identified this as a halibut hook used for catching large halibut as the size of the hook and barb mean that only large fish could bite down on it. He commented that halibut hooks are usually made from yew wood and cedar wood, and that the cedar arm with the bone barb would float, while the other arm would sink. He thought the figures were a raven with a fish. Christian added that hooks such as these would have been tied to a small stone weight that skipped along the bottom. He reported that historically Haidas fished for halibut from canoes. Other delegates also thought the materials were cedar wood and yew. They thought the figure under the raven could be a fish or a frog.
The bone hooks and wood are bound together using particular tying techniques. This involves laying a length of thread loose along the length of the wood that is to be bound to the hook and binding that under the wound cord. Once enough cord has been wound about the wood and hook this thread is picked back up and used to tie the other end off and to clamp together the sinew / fibres used to tie the hook up. This helps to guard against the binding coming loose as the hook is submerged and begins to absorb water, or as the fish takes hold.
To gauge the hook size a maker would use the width of their thumb across the joint inserted between the bone hook and the outer wooden frame. [CAK 20/05/2010]