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Details
A TLINGIT WOOD SOAPBERRY SPOON
with slender, cylindrical handle expanding to a flattened paddle, the front carved with two-dimensional totemic designs, including a bird with cross-hatched formline details on the spatulate end
Length: 15¼ in. (38.5 cm.)
with slender, cylindrical handle expanding to a flattened paddle, the front carved with two-dimensional totemic designs, including a bird with cross-hatched formline details on the spatulate end
Length: 15¼ in. (38.5 cm.)
Further details
Paddle-shaped spoons are used at feasts where soopolallie, or whipped soapberries (Shepherdia canadensis) are served as a confection. The airy concoction has the frothy consistency of beaten egg whites. Soapberry bushes flourish in dry open interior forests and the small red translucent berries, which ripen in midsummer, are traded to coastal peoples. Dried and pressed into cakes for transport and storage, the berries are mixed with a little water in a wooden bowl and are beaten into a foam with the hand or a whisk of branches.
In the past, the Tlingit stored their collections of soapberry spoons in openwork spruce root baskets hung, when not in use, on pegs on the walls of their cedar plank houses. Some spoons are ornamented with crest images; others are undecorated but equally elegant in form. The host distributes spoons to guests at the commencement of a feast. Tlingit etiquette requires that the pink foam be sucked into the mouth from the side of the spoon.
Jay Stewart
Peter MacNair
March 1, 2002
In the past, the Tlingit stored their collections of soapberry spoons in openwork spruce root baskets hung, when not in use, on pegs on the walls of their cedar plank houses. Some spoons are ornamented with crest images; others are undecorated but equally elegant in form. The host distributes spoons to guests at the commencement of a feast. Tlingit etiquette requires that the pink foam be sucked into the mouth from the side of the spoon.
Jay Stewart
Peter MacNair
March 1, 2002