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Naxw (Halibut hook)

Naxw (Halibut hook)

ca. 1880

This halibut hook was made of two pieces of wood—yew for the sculpted piece and yellow cedar for the piece with the barb. These shaped parts and the bone or iron barb are bound together with split spruce root. Halibut hooks of this type were usually sculpted with human, animal or halibut figures which were thought to magically aid in the luring of fish to the hook.
Yew wood, yellow cedar wood, iron, and spruce root
5 x 1 3/4 in. (12.7 x 4.45 cm)
L.: 11 1/8 in.
Gift of John H. Hauberg
91.1.126
location
Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Box of Daylight, September 15, 1983 - January 8, 1984
Published ReferencesThe Spirit Within: Northwest Coast Native Art from the John H. Hauberg Collection, Seattle Art Museum, 1995, pg. 90

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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