Feast Ladle
late 1800s–early 1900s
- Medium
- horn, bone, copper, abalone shell inlay
- Classification
- Miscellaneous
- Dimensions
- Overall: 13 cm (5 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- Native North America, Northwest Coast, Alaska, Tlingit
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Art of the Americas
- Credit line
- The Harold T. Clark Educational Extension Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Elaborate utensils, valuable possessions of Northwest Coast noble clans, were used during potlatch feasts. An imposing eagle hovers, patron-like, over this ladle’s bowl and the bounty it once served; a bear’s head appears on the underside of the bowl. Both may be crests, motifs that, like European heraldry, were exclusive to important families and referred to their histories and rights to control land and resources.
