This spoon was made from a pair of mountain goat horns; the first was shaped, boiled, and opened out to create the bowl, then fastened with horn rivets into the base of the second horn, which is carved with a sculptural image in the unmodified shape of the horn. The carved figure most likely represents a bear/human image sitting on its haunches. Some historical artists appear to have specialized in the technology of horn spoon and vessel production, creating dozens in singles and sets that were owned and used by all the higher status families in the villages. All but a very few have ended up in museums and private collections all across the globe.

Steven C. Brown

References: For a study of Tlingit spoons see Anne-Marie Victor-Howe, Feeding the Ancestors: Tlingit Carved Horn Spoons (Cambridge: Peabody Museum Press, 2007).