Feasting dish

Most societies around the world mark important events with feasts and ceremonies involving food and drink. Often the utensils and vessels used at these events are deemed to be special.

In indigenous communities of north-west America a feast and distribution of gifts – the potlatch ceremony – is a way of demonstrating a leader’s wealth and power.

Feasting dishes such as this one feature in communal winter feasts and potlach. It would have once held foods which were served to guests. This included delicious fish oil such as eulachon (a kind of smelt, also known as the candlefish).

This dish is carved with the form of a wolf with a human astride at one end and an unidentified creature at the other.

Visual description: A black, oval-shaped dish. Each end is decorated with a carving. On one side, a wolf with a human astride its neck. On the other, an unidentifiable creature. Each carving has two legs that support the feasting dish at either end, elevating the bowl.