Currently not on view
Two-piece spoon with finely carved handle
The Potlatch
At least for the past several centuries, only leading families in Northwest coast communities have controlled the wealth necessary to commission heraldic works of art that display the crests and emblems of their histories. Accompanying this wealth was the responsibility to share resources through great feasts, called potlatches. Visitors to the host’s village might stay for days or even weeks, enjoying the hospitality of the host family, who would provide food, gifts, and entertainment, including masked dances that dramatized the family’s origin story. Articles used in serving various courses of foods to the invited guests would also bear the crest emblems of the clan and families involved; displayed here is a selection of such serving implements, each produced from wild-goat horn.
Information
before 1882
North America
<p> Collected by Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, in or after 1877; Possibly given to Princeton Theological Seminary, 1879-1882; Given to E. M. Museum (Princeton Museum of Natural History), 1882 </p>
Gillett G. Griffin. <em>Art of the Northwest Coast</em> (Princeton University Art Museum, 1969)., cat. no. 66, p. 39
1233 1969Evan Maurer, <em>The Native American Heritage: A Survey of North American Indian Art</em> (Chicago: The Chicago Institute of Art, 1977)., cat. no. 451, p. 293 (illus.)
1263 1977
