Ceremonial Spoon

Although there are no mountain goats on Haida Gwaii, Haida artists traded wool and mountain goat horns with the mainland. When carved and steamed, mountain goat horns take on a soft plastic quality that enables them to be shaped into feasting ladles and carved with elaborate figurative handles.
This feasting spoon is formed from two mountain goat horns that are joined by copper pins where the bowl meets the handle. Bringing the two horns together created a much larger tool and more space to carve figures on the handle.
The handle features a humanoid form grasping its own tongue atop the head of a toothless creature that may be a dragonfly or a frog. The middle of the handle features a band of square abalone pieces inlaid on the head of a beaver.