Producer unknown to us
Spoon
Americas, United States
19th century
Horn, hair, natural fiber, porcupine quills.
Collection context unknown to us
Handed over to Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden from Museum Burg Kriebstein in 1974
59770
The handle of the spoon is trimmed with five leather straps wrapped in raffia fibers dyed red. At the lower ends of these ribbons are beads or drilled balls and bent cones of yellow metal, into which tufts of hair have been inserted. The handle itself is also wrapped in dyed fiber. Decorative leather fringes are attached to the sides of the spoon bowl through drilled holes.
The item came to Dresden in 1974 as part of the GDR’s museum consolidation campaign. Originally part of the Museum Burg Kriebstein collection, it was brought to Hohenstein-Ernstthal in the 1950s. There, some of the objects temporarily came into the possession of a local Indianism group until the Dresden museum, with the help of further state offices, brought them to Dresden and Radebeul in 1974. Missing documents make further research on the origin of the object impossible for the time being.
Frank Usbeck