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Ladle

Culture
Great Lakes artist
Date
19th century
Material
Wood
made in
North and Central America
Classification
Sculpture, wood
Collection
Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
Current Location
Not on view
Dimensions
8 1/2 × 1 in. (21.6 × 2.5 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Toby Herbst in loving memory of Barbara Ayers Herbst
Rights
Public Domain
Object Number
216:2017
NOTES
An animal figure caps the handle of this ladle using projecting planes—the forelegs on the horse—as a hook to suspend the utensil from a vessel rim. The practice of carving figures on ladles, combs, bowls, and other personal belongings was practiced widely across the Northeast Woodlands. Generalized depictions of perching birds were especially popular among 19th-century Seneca carvers, one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) confederacy.
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