qutdleg (blubber lamp)

unrecorded Kalaallit (Greenland Inuit) artist, artist

qutdleg (blubber lamp), mid 1800s–1895

Where object was made: Greenland

Material/technique: carving; stone

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Length (Height x Width x Length): 5.5 x 12 x 22 cm
Object Height/Width/Length (Height x Width x Length): 2 3/16 x 4 3/4 x 8 11/16 in

Credit line: Gift of Lewis Lindsay Dyche

Accession number: 2007.0557

Not on display

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Exhibition Label:
"Climate Change at the Poles," Jan-2009, Kate Meyer, Jennifer Talbott, and Angela Watts
Oil lamps such as this, and often much larger lamps, were used to light the inside of Inuit homes. The fat from seals or other marine mammals would be used to fill the basin of the lamp and dried plants like moss would be used as a wick. At times a line of moss would be created along the edge to produce more light with a ring of flames.