In addition to innumerable silver and gold bracelets, Daax’igang, Charles Edenshaw, one of the most prolific and in many ways the best of the Haida artists of his generation, created small objects including napkin rings, brooches, ferrules for wooden canes, and spoons like this one, based on traditional wood and horn examples. Most, if not all, feature a raised raven head at the end of the handle with eyes, nostrils, and mouth line engraved upon it. This spoon includes formline patterns engraved inside the handle and on the back of the bowl, both of which appear to represent bird heads and are connected to the raven identity of the handle tip. Silver for such work originally came from coins, hammered out, cut to form, annealed, engraved, and bent into shape. Later in the work of Edenshaw and others sheet silver became available, which allowed objects to be made from thicker material. The graceful curves and lines of traditional spoons adapted well to this foreign material, and Edenshaw is known to have made sets of spoons like this for special clients.

Steven C. Brown