Sensational Ash Burl Bowl
With Engaging “Blonde” Surface 

Northeast, Colonial or Woodlands Indian, ca. 1780–1800.

I like this bowl a lot. It combines a skillfully worked, classic late 18th-century profile with a beautiful, uncommon, cream-colored natural surface.

Despite its refined round form, the bowl appears to have been shaped by hand, not by lathe. Under magnification and bright light, one can see countless fine rasp tool marks, and an absence of lathe-turning marks, indicating careful carving and finishing not by turning, possibly by a Native American to emulate Colonial bowls.

The light-colored surface may reflect a long history of washing and scrubbing, and/or perhaps associated with dairy or dough-making. Only a few knife marks suggest that chopping in food preparation was not its principal use. The interior rim shows darkening from long time handling, just what we want to see. Likewise, under the foot is darkened and burnished from table contact.

Terrific condition without cracks. About 15 1/4 inches in diameter x 5 1/2 inches tall. This fine ash burl bowl is a keeper.