Wooden feast dish with shells inlaid around the rim. The short sides are painted and carved with crest designs. [MJD 05/05/2009]

Collection type: Object
Description: Wooden feast dish with shells inlaid around the rim. The short sides are painted and carved with crest designs. [MJD 05/05/2009]
Long description: Wooden feast dish with shells inlaid around the rim. The short sides are painted and carved with crest designs. Carved from a single piece of wood, likely alder, the dish is rectangular in shape. The top of the short sides are curved while the long sides angle out slightly from the base of the bowl. The exterior of the long sides are plainly carved for the most part except for a series of thin parallel vertical grooves at each end with the very edges incised with short, horizontal lines. The exterior of the short sides of the bowl are carved with similar, but not identical, designs. On one short end, there is a split in the wood from the top of the dish. This side is decorated with an ear in each upper corner and two ovoid eye designs in the top centre. Two large ovoid eye designs are in the middle with a U-shaped area decorated with angled lines in the middle centre. The bottom portion of this short end is carved with a wide, short mouth design. The other short side has a similar design except there are triangles with horizontal lines between the small eye designs in the top centre, and the U-shape in the centre of the face has fewer angled lines. The top rim of the dish is inlaid with opercula shells. The rim overhangs the interior of the dish which is plainly carved. [CAK 27/05/2010]
Geographical reference: Canada
Northern America > North America > Canada; British Columbia Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) NW Coast
Cultural groups: Haida
Person: Field collector Charles Harrison; PRM source Charles Harrison
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1882-1890
Date collected: Between 1882 and 1890 ?
Acquisition information: Purchased: 02/03/1891
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Material Operculum Shell, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Inlaid, Process Painted, Process Incised
Dimensions: Length: max 387 mm, Height: max 148 mm, Width: max 342 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1891.49.105
Research and responses: 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 bowl was viewed alongside other wood and horn dishes on Wednesday Sept 9, 2009. Gaahlaay (Lonnie Young) described this as a serving bowl for use with big spoons. Nika Collison described it as a feast dish. Diane Brown provided the Haida word for cross-hatching: maats'ilang. Gwaai Edenshaw and Jaalen Edenshaw thought the triangular elements on the cheeks were unusual and Nika Collison and Jaalen Edenshaw thought the triangular shapes carved on this bowl were similar to those found on 1891.49.103. [CAK 27/05/2010]

Search terms: Vessel, Food and Drink, Bowl, Food Accessory