Musical instrument Item Number: 1937.52.23 from the Pitt Rivers Museum
Double annular wooden frame rattle mounted with puffin beaks. [EC 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 14/9/2005]
Current display label - NORTH AMERICA, USA or CANADA; NORTHWEST COAST PEOPLES. Rattle made from puffin beaks. Purchased from James Thomas Hooper in 1937; 1937.52.23 [MdeA 21/05/2008]
A similar rattle [1884.110.7] in the collection is listed as Haida. In his book "Haida Art", George MacDonald describes this kind of rattle and also notes how deer hooves were also used in place of puffin beaks on this type of rattle. He does not indicate that the use of this type of rattle was exclusive to the Haida. Both Horned Puffins and Tufted Puffins are found in Alaska. George Emmons and Frederica de Laguna document numerous examples of the use of puffin bills in Tlingit society in Alaska. A young boy "dressed for the dance" is depicted in Emmons' "The Tlingit Indians" on page 244 with a rattle of two circles, cross bar, puffin beaks and bird down (?fur). [CAK 24/06/2009]
Accession Book Entry - May J.T. Hooper Banbury - Jingle of puffin's beaks mounted on double annular frame, NW coast of America (probably Alaska) 4/- ... Pd by chque 29 July '37 £17-15-0
Card Catalogue Entry - N.W. COAST OF AMERICA, ?ALASKA Jingle of puffins' beaks mounted on double annular frame. Purch. from J.T. Hooper, 1937.
Pitt Rivers Museum label - 1937.52.23 [EC 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 14/9/2005]
Pitt Rivers Museum display label [in Related Documents File] - NORTH AMERICA, NORTH-WEST COAST Jingle with upper and lower mandibles of Puffins (probably Fratercula arctica). Purch. 1937. (Hooper). [EC 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 14/9/2005]
Written on object - 1937.52.23 Jingle with Puffin beaks N.W. COAST of AMERICA Purch. May 1937 (Hooper) [EC 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 14/9/2005]
Related Documents File [James Thomas Hooper, Catalogue of Ethnographical Material] - The museum has a photocopy of Hooper's accession and dispersal records, which are bound as two volumes and kept in a separate box file. Items are arranged according to Hooper's own numbering system [RTS 21/11/2003].