Beaver-Shaped Bowl
Unknown Artist
c. 1890–1920
Medium
wood
Dimensions
11.3 × 27 × 18.7 cm
Classification
Wood
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Barry Bradley
Accession Number
2009.434
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Bowls were a major Northwest Coast art form, used in many contexts including potlatch feasts that validated the rights and privileges of wealthy noble families. When Euro-American settlement forced a change from traditional to cash economies in the early 1900s, Indigenous carvers turned their skills to creating bowls like this example for the outside market.