Simple, undecorated wooden ladles share everyday duty with plain dishes and bowls. This ladle is decorated only with a shallow groove paralleling the inner rim, a conventional ladle feature throughout much of the northern coast. The wood, probably alder, has been stained almost black by an infusion of the candlefish oil which it once contained. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

The paint is red and black.