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Longer Description

Model wooden stick carved and painted with animal figure at one end. The stick is carved from a single piece of wood. It is rounded and has a curvature that may reflect a natural curvature in the wood. It tapers toward the plainly carved end and is mostly unpainted. The other end is carved with the face of an animal. The facial features are shallowly carved and include an open mouth, snout, two eyes and ears. The bottom jaw, ears, eyes and nostrils are painted red, while the inside of the mouth and length of the snout is painted black. There is a faint line incised around head, between the ears and eyes. [CAK 19/05/2009]

Description

Model wooden stick carved and painted with animal figure at one end. [CAK 19/05/2009]

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 stick was viewed alongside musical instruments on Thursday Sept 10, 2009. There was general consensus among delegates that this stick, as part of the set including 1891.49.27 - .31, was not a drum stick. Delegates wondered if it was something that would have been used by a shaman. Diane Brown proposed that if it was a shaman's tool, each stick may have been used to cure a different illness. Diane also wondered if these were a chief's tally sticks. She recalled that chief's would use sticks to keep a tally of potlatches and the blankets they had given away. They would store bundles of ten sticks in the rafters of their house to signify the blankets they had given away. Christian White noted that there was very little wear on the sticks, suggestion they were models and not used. [CAK 07/04/2010]
The object is one of eleven model sticks purchased by Harrison and bares a thematic resemblance to 1891.49.31, which is also carved with an animal form at its end. These are the only two of the 11 carved with animal figures. [CAK 19/05/2009]

Primary Documentation

Accession book entry: 'From Rev. Ch. Harrison, 80 Halton Rd, Canonbury Sq. N. Collection of Haida objects collected by him.... - [1 of] 11 [model] Drum sticks.£45. [Purchase price includes 1891.49.1-110]

Card Catalogue Entry - CANADA, QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, HAIDA INDIANS Model drum stick. Coll. by Rev. Ch. Harrison: purch. from him March 1891.

Written on object - Models of 'drum' sticks used for beating time to medicine man's chant when curing the sick. Haida. C. Harrison coll. (MS. No. 19). Purchased 1891.

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]