Featured Haida or Tlingit silver spoon...

Very nice, Cheryl! I hope you hear back from the artisan you contacted.

 

Hi Cheryl -

I recently acquired the same spoon. Your photos are the only reference I can find on the web of this gorgeous piece. Curious if you happened to find more on the provenance of this spoon?

 

Hi, JerseyEarlyBird - welcome to the forums.


Glad you reminded me of this piece, meant to post around this time last year, but was side-tracked, because it was just a couple days before all h*ll broke loose, that it was in a bunch of silver I took to my friendly precious metals dealer, along with my scrap gold, to have him test on his fancy $30,000. XRF spectrometer (after all this time, he pretty much knows that some of my stuff is never intended for scrap).

The result on this one surprised both of us - it tested as very close to fine silver, his reaction, like mine was that it was almost certainly heavily silverplated, don't remember the number, but it had to be at least a certain 'micron' thickness for his apparatus to not penetrate and read the other metals - of course, I rejected his offer to file it for further testing, so hard to tell the metal underneath. My last unmarked piece, already damaged, that had to be filed because the reading didn't seem right to him, tested the same high fineness as its first result, but I definitely wouldn't expect it on this piece (nor fully trust my jeweler's testing)...

So, I believe this piece was most likely produced as a souvenir-type potlatch spoon, similar to the BOMA spoons mentioned by All_fakes, and there are probably quite a few others out there in addition to yours and mine - still a sweet piece, and still part of my collection.

The sterling (marked) spoon below is not mine, but I do have one like it, designed by Amos Wallace, originally with a seal for the Alaska Purchase Centennial in 1967, it continued in production without the seal - he also designed a spoon for the 1980 Juneau Centennial, produced in copper.






~Cheryl

 

Cheryl, I’ve never found a jeweler with a fancy test system like that, I wish I could. But I have been able to do specific gravity testing myself which works really well to distinguish plated from solid pieces like this spoon that don’t have any mixed metals or other material. Absolutely no damage is done, other than a quick water bath.

It requires a good chemistry set balance scale, and a big bucket of water. Once you get it set up you can test any pieces you’ve put aside as questionable.

Im sure you know this, but thought I’d remind you in case you thought it was too hard to set up.

 

funny after all this time no others are on the web.....

but...bird has one ...so they're out there......

Maybe we could see Bird's...and hear where it came from.....y'know...to add info to this thread !!!

 

Looks like from pacific northwest state. Washington maybe?

 

Alaska , more likely.........at least the design !

 

Or very possibly made in B.C. Canada; where there are a number of casting firms; BOMA, for one.
There have in the past been manufacturers of NW Coast-style items in Washington, but I'm not aware of any here currently doing production runs in cast silver.

 

Haida or Tlingit spoon by JerseyEarlyBird posted Mar 18, 2021 at 9:36 AM

Haida or Tlingit spoon by JerseyEarlyBird posted Mar 18, 2021 at 9:36 AM

Haida or Tlingit spoon by JerseyEarlyBird posted Mar 18, 2021 at 9:36 AM

Haida or Tlingit spoon by JerseyEarlyBird posted Mar 18, 2021 at 9:36 AM

 

Thank you for the update, Cheryl. Very informative to say the least!

I found this spoon at a New Jersey flea market last weekend. It was at the bottom of a random box of antique silverware. Such an intriguing piece (for this region) that I had to get it. Since all the other pieces in the box were quite tarnished, I figured this had to be pewter. Nice to hear the it may be (at least partially) be silver!

I sent pics to my buddy in Portland and he seemed confident that it was from Oregon. This area is not his specialty though.

 

I'd guess that by "from Oregon" he really means "from the Northwest Coast."
So far as I know, there are no manufacturers of Northwest Coast style items in Oregon; and Oregon is outside the area where any of the relevant tribal groups are located.
There are some NW Coast Native art galleries in Portland, so I suppose it could be possible that one of them collaborated in issuing this; but I'd think it pretty unlikely; the galleries I'm thinking of would be more likely to issue NW Coast prints.
But unless we find the exact item with a reliable attribution of the manufacturer, there's not much point in debating; it is for sure a cast item in the Northwest Coast Native style, manufacturer unknown at this time. And it stands on its own merits; it is what we see in the last (excellent!) photos.

 

I have one looks just like it

 

and what do u know about it that could add to this 3 year old thread ???
do you have the original box.....
did it come from a retail store?
are u in the USA....Canada.......Iran...?