Description
TLINGIT A TLINGIT FEAST BOWL (CEREMONIAL BOWL.)
This fine bowl is an early example dating from the early 1800’s . It was used ceremonially to serve seal or fish oil used during the potlatch ceremonies. Beautiful abalone shell inlays and great oily patina from generations of use.
Provenance: Steven G. Alpert, Dallas Collection James and Marilynn Alsdorf, Chicago, acquired from the latter on May 15, 1985 . Old Christies Label on bottom
Cf. for a similar Tlingit bowl representing a beaver, see the one collected by IG Wosnesenki between 1839 and 1845, from the Kunstkammer of Tsar Peter the Great and currently kept at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, inv. no. 2539-19; also published in Rickenbach, J., Tlingit. Alte Indianische Kunst aus Alaska , Zurich, 2001, p. 205, fig. 72.
