A Tsimshian wood bowl

in the form of a seal, with backswept tail fins separated from the splayed triangular tail, the tapering head with a deeply hollowed area beneath the chin, and with broad lips slightly parted, exaggerated nostrils and large circular eyes, the back with a deeply carved oval cavity; aged resinous patina overall.

For discussion of seal dishes see Brown, 1998, p. 27: "The majority of northern Northwest Coast carved dishes conceptually blend an animal image with one of several traditionalized bowl forms. …the [seal] bowl form is clearly an adaptation of the archaic head canoe shape. The head and tail of the seal are composed in a manner that replicates the thin, finlike characteristics of the indigenous canoe style of the northern coast as well as the graphic form of a swimming seal. Beneath the head and tail, these extensions are hollowed out in order to lighten the overall sculpture and prevent checking in the wood, a technique common to the seal dish tradition."