Bowl

Description

This circular wooden bowl has steep, almost vertical, sides and a flat base. The rim sharply flares outwards and could be gripped as a handle. Utilitarian household items made from wood are sometimes called treen or treenware, terms which come from the word tree. This bowl was hand carved from a burl – a knotty, irregular growth which can form on trees. 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. Traces of wooden pegs inserted into the center of this bowl suggest it may have once been used as a sieve. The maker and origin of this object is unknown, but its construction indicates it may have been made by a Native American artist.