The sea otter was a significant animal in the history of the Northwest Coast, but there are very few carvings like this that pay homage to the creature. Depicted floating on its back devouring its food, this is one the animal's most delightful and familiar poses, as otters often repose, feed and even sleep on their backs afloat.

Grease bowls of this kind from the southern Northwest Coast were often conceived as an animal-form sculpture that was been hollowed out for use as a vessel for foodstuffs. On the northern coast, such a vessel is more likely to be a traditional abstract bowl form to which is appended the head, limbs, and tail of the represented creature or crest emblem. The hollowing of both these vessel types often includes an opening much smaller than the bowl itself, resulting in the thinned-down and deeply undercut rim edge that lends a delicate quality to the carving.

This bowl is carved in an early style, unembellished by the traditional abstract design forms and was made to serve fish or seal oil as an accompaniment to dried or smoked fish.

The entire surface is lightly textured with tiny, parallel grooves that encircle both otter and bowl. This finely grooved surface is a very old finishing technique and is oftern seen on documented objects from the earliest historical period.

Sea otters were hunted for their luxurious pelts, which Northwest Coast peoples sometimes incorporated into garments used as ceremonial regalia.

Capt. James Cook’s 1778 expedition spent time in Nootka Sound on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island and acquired many of the pelts. Cook and his crew later traveled to the trading port of Canton, China, where they discovered that the otter pelts they traded for buttons and nails were being resold for significant sums on the Chinese market.

On their return to England, this news set off an international rush for the soft brown gold of otter pelts. Hunted to near extinction by the mid-nineteenth century, sea otters were reintroduced to the Northwest Coast in the 1980s and have made a remarkable comeback, and today actually threaten certain populations of the sea resources on which they survive.


(edited 12-27-12cd)