Raven Rattle Item Number: 3260/36 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Raven rattle with red and black painted designs and cord lashings around handle. Raven has wings in a gliding position. On its back is a frog is connected by a tongue to a reclining human (shaman or healer?). The frog is held in the long beak of a bird (kingfisher?) that forms the raven’s tail. The stylized face carved in shallow relief on the belly of the raven. (Interior thought to hold beads?)

History Of Use

Oral histories place the origin of raven rattles among the Nisga’a on the Nass River, from whom their use and manufacture expanded south as far as the Kwakwaka’wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth, and north to the Tlingit. Today such rattles remain widely used in ceremony as well as being made as art objects, and are considered by artists to be a kind of “ultimate test” of the carver’s knowledge of hardwood and skill with a knife. Details like the fine, hollowed planes of the raven’s head, and the human figure only minimally touching the rattle at elbows and feet, show the carver’s effort to thin the wood wherever possible in order to achieve the best sound. Filled with a handful of pebbles, beads, or lead shot, the rattle’s two halves are joined under the wings and along the handle, then secured with a wrapped cord.

Cultural Context

ceremonial

Item History

What

Name
Raven Rattle
Identification Number
3260/36
Type of Item
rattle
Material
cotton fibre ?, maple wood, paint and stinging-nettle fibre ?
Overall
height 11.5 cm, width 10.0 cm, depth 34.3 cm

Who

Culture
Tsimshian
Previous Owner
Elspeth McConnell
Received from
Elspeth McConnell (Donor)

Where

Holding Institution
MOA: University of British Columbia
Made in
British Columbia, Canada

When

Creation Date
between 1850 and 1890
Ownership Date
before August 12, 2017
Acquisition Date
on August 12, 2017

Other

Condition
good
Accession Number
3260/0036