A shallow oval wooden feast bowl, carved with a seal's head at one end and back flippers at the other, with inlaid shell spots around the rim. It is likely to have been made by the Alutiiq people, from the Cook Inlet and Kodiak Island regions of Alaska, and used for seal oil. Alutiiq life involved complex ceremony with a festival cycle in the winter. This bowl may have been used during feast celebrations to serve dishes to guests from other communities, 'Messenger Festivals'.

This bowl is believed to have been collected on Captain James Cook's 3rd voyage to the Pacific, as part of trade at Nootka Sound in March 1778.