Dish Or Bowl
date: label: Accession Date
content: 10 Feb 1894
name: label: Collector
content: William J. Fisher
label: Donor Name
content: William J. Fisher
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ORNAMENTED BIRD. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 5, ARCTIC, FIG. 8, PG. 191. WOODEN BOWL USED AS A FOOD DISH, CARVED TO REPRESENT A BIRD & DECORATED W/ GROOVES, INLAID WHITE SEED BEADS, & RED COLORING ON THE INTERIOR. RIGHT WING PARTLY MISSING, REPAIRED WITH A METAL STAPLE. LOANED TO THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO 6/22/77 RETURNED 12/1/77. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 389, P. 282." Crossroads caption identifies it as "Chugach Eskimo grease bowl. Pacific Eskimo carved grease bowls resemble Tlingit bowls in their principal form, but are generally shallower and with more naturalistic treatment of the animal or bird heads. They often include Tlingit-like treatment of the details, such as the ovoid wing joints of this merganser. Another decorative feature favored by the Chugach artists was an inlay of rows of small, white, glass beads rather than the opercula typical of Tlingit bowls. This is a fine example of a Pacific Eskimo bowl, with sweeping form, upraised head, bead inlay and deep color, the result of long years of oil saturation." THIS OBJECT APPEARS TO BE PART OF ORIGINAL NUMBER SERIES 59 - 68, ALL FROM CHENEGA ISLAND ACCORDING TO ACCESSION RECORD. - F. PICKERING 2-26-1997 Illus. Fig. 174, p. 179 in Crowell, Aron, Amy F. Steffian, and Gordon L. Pullar. 2001. Looking both ways: heritage and identity of the Alutiiq people. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press.
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=267, retrieved 8-29-2012: Bowl, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Chugach. ciquq "bowl, dish" - Language: Chugach Sugpiaq (Prince William Sound dialect) This bird-shaped dish, probably representing a merganser duck, is saturated with fish or sea mammal oil from use as a serving bowl. The naturalistic carving is Sugpiaq in style, while ovoid "joint marks" on the wings reflect Tlingit influence. Sugpiaq artists used white trade beads, animal teeth, bone, or crystals to decorate their carvings.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 9 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Chenega Island (not certain), Prince William Sound / Seward Quad, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), Chugach
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 027806
label: USNM Number
content: E168623-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bowl
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 38 cm