Fish Hook

This tiny ivory fish hook is a prime example of excellent design — it’s both functional and beautiful. Measuring only 5.0 centimetres long and 1.4 centimetres wide, it was carved into a fish shape. The artist even added eyes and a mouth! While I have seen eyes on other hooks, I have yet to see a mouth on similar fish-shaped examples from other museum collections. 

The hook was formed by bending a short iron nail through a piece of carved ivory. A small piece of bird quill sticks out where it was likely attached to a fishing line made from baleen. Baleen is the filter-feeding part of a baleen whale’s mouth and is made from keratin, the same material that makes up human fingernails. 

As with many items in the HBC Museum Collection, we know very little about this tiny fish hook. Based on the style, it was likely fashioned by an Inuit artist or maker; but we have no idea of exactly where across the vast Arctic it might have originated. The fish hook somehow made its way to a very prolific collector, Dr. W.E. Anderson, who ran a medical practice in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. He eventually sold his collection to the Hudson’s Bay Company.