Spoon
Name/Title
SpoonEntry/Object ID
L2024.3.62Description
Carved wooden spoon with scrolled handle. Stem and handle decorated with incised, floral decoration. Left edge of bowl shows significant wear.Use
Maple sugar granulating spoonContext
This is an important piece from a “picker” in South-Central New Hampshire. It has a distinctive “semi-chip carved” foliar or vining design on the handle with more traditional chip carving on the sides of the fiddlehead handle. This distinctive regional Abenaki tool was used with a small bowl for turning hardening maple sugar into granules. The evidence for this use are the distinctive wood-compression grooves on the back of the neck, just above the spoon bowl. This was where the rim of the bowl was used as a fulcrum for the spoon to “jack” the hardening sugar away from the bottom of the bowl. The left side of bowl of the spoon was also heavily worn from stirring the hardening syrup. This piece is an excellent example of “use-wear” as evidence of the purpose of an artifact.Acquisition
Source (if not Accessioned)
Abenaki Cultural ConservancyMade/Created
Date made
circa 1880Place
State/Province
New HampshireCountry
United States of AmericaContinent
North AmericaEthnography
Culture/Tribe
Abenaki
Native American