Halibut Hook
Tlingit (map) or Eyak people, Alaska, United States, d. 19th c.
Carved wood and bone hook attached with cedar bark strips
9½” h x 5½” w (24.13 x 13.97 cm)
SOLD
“Two-piece wooden halibut hooks were rigged to hover near the ocean bottom where the big fish feed, tethered to a stone sinker below and to a wooden buoy or inflated seal stomach above. A human or animal image was carved on the hook to entice the fish to bite” (Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, n.d.).
