Lot 78
UNIDENTIFIED MAKER, HAIDA OR POSSIBLY TLINGIT
Feast Spoon, late 19th century
mountain goat horn and mountain sheep horn
metal rivet, 9 x 3.5 x 2 in (22.9 x 8.9 x 5.1 cm).
unsigned.
ESTIMATE: $800— $1,200
PRICE REALIZED: $4,080
Provenance
Ex Collection of Harold Pfeiffer, Ottawa. Pfeiffer (1908-1997) was a respected sculptor whose subjects included numerous bronze portraits of Inuit and First Nations people, many of which are in museum collections;
Acquired from the above by Dr. George and Mrs. Joanne MacDonald, Cantley, Quebec;
Estate of Dr. George MacDonald.
The elaborately carved mountain goat-horn handles, carved with family crests or illustrations of myths, were riveted to the bowls fashioned from mountain-sheep horn, to create prized spoons that were brought out at special feasts. The figures are arranged very similarly to those on totem poles. Many artists who carved feast spoons also created argillite model poles.
Reference: For an excellent introduction to Tlingit spoons see Anne-Marie Victor-Howe, Feeding the Ancestors: Tlingit Carved Horn Spoons (Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum Press, 2007).