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Longer Description

Cow-horn ladle, handle carved into humanoid (?bear) figure holding onto the hind flippers or legs of another animal (possibly a seal or a sea wolf). Eyes, ears and flippers inlaid with haliotis shell. [CAK 01/04/2009]

Description

Cow-horn ladle, handle carved into humanoid (?bear) figure holding onto the hind flippers or legs of another animal (possibly a seal or a sea wolf). [CAK 01/04/2009]

Primary Documentation

Accession Book Entry - 'WELLCOME HISTORICAL MEDICAL MUSEUM, 28 PORTMAN SQUARE, LONDON, W.1... 1951.6.54 NORTH AMERICA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, HAIDA INDIANS. Cow-horn ladle, handle carved with totemic figures inlaid with haliotis shell. Length of bowl c. 15.8 cm. (170243).

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

Pitt Rivers Museum label - BRITISH COLUMBIA HAIDA INDIANS Gift of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum 1951.6.54 Cow horn [El.B 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 20/3/2006]

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 spoon was viewed alongside other horn and wood spoons on Wednesday Sept 9, 2009. No information about this particular spoon was recorded from delegates. The spoons as a collection elicited a lot of discussion amongst delegates. They discussed whether the different varieties of spoons reflected differences in the owner's rank, or differences in function (i.e. everyday use vs. use at a feast). It was thought that the plain spoons (i.e. those collected by Charles Harrison, 1891.49.50- .51) were for everyday use. Delegates were also interested in the greenish hue of many of the spoons and this was identified as unusual. One delegate offered that, in general, mountain goat horn was used for smaller spoons because they have a narrower shape to their horns. People noted that the shape of a spoon can be altered by heat (i.e. from the soup itself). [CAK 01/06/2010]