Bowl

Description

This bowl was made from burl wood – a knotty, irregular growth which can form on trees. It has slightly flaring slides and an incised line below the rim. Utilitarian household items made from wood are sometimes called treen or treenware, terms which come from the word tree. Burl treen was commonplace in pre-colonial and colonial America, used among Native Americans and European settlers alike. Burls were plentiful in North American forests and their naturally round shapes easily lent themselves to the form of a bowl, while the wood’s interlocking grain made burl treen more durable and less subject to splitting than straight grain woodenware.