Ivory model of a blubber pounder. Two pieces of bone slotted together at right angles, secured by a bone dowel. The smaller piece has a suspension hole at one end. The full-sized version in wood, horn or bone would have been used to prepare frozen blubber before using it for fuel. Mallet-shaped blubber pounders are found in the Amundsen Collection of Netsilik Inuit material and were also used by the Iglulik (Iglulingmiut). Part of a collection of ethnographic items made by Admiral Sir George Back (1796-1878). The item would have been made for sale to Europeans and Back met Inuit anxious to trade ivory carvings in Hudson Strait on 12 August 1819 and 5 August 1836- there was a tradition of ivory carving established on Baffin Island. Back's collection was bequeathed to Greenwich Hospital in 1900 by Mrs Eliza Back, widow of Sir George's nephew - the Reverend Henry Back.