Natural color moose hide, tanned and smoked; porcupine quill. Both cotton thread and tendon appear to have been used.

The panel that forms the flap is attached by a seam to the pouch. The pouch itself is made of two pieces sewn at the sides to form the front and back.

The single lines of quill work are formed by lines of small stitches of tendon/cotton thread sewn on the surface of the hide, with quills wrapped around the tendon/cotton stitches.

Parallel bands of zigzag porcupine quills in red, blue and white run vertically up the pouch. Single lines of oversewn line quill form wavy lines beside the bands of zigzag.

The material in the Bibliotheque nationale was collected before c. 1792. Autumn Epple thinks based on materials and style, it dates between 1700 and 1750.

The ethnographic works from the Bibliothèque Nationale du France are located in the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. These ethnographic works were brought together in this collection at the time of the French Revolution, around 1792. Many of these works came from the Jardin du Roi, the collection of the French kings. In 1792, inventories were made of the possessions of aristocratic French families in Paris and the provinces and many objects were selected to be added to the Bibliothèque Nationale, which was the national collection of the new Republic. Ethnographic material from the Bibliothèque Nationale was in the Musée d'ethnographie du Trocadéro, then the Musée de l’Homme, and is now in the Musée du quai Branly.

Unknown artist, pouch. Currently in the Musée du quai Branly, 71.1878.32.69. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip; GRASAC item id 1396.

This record was created by Anne de Stecher during an RAship for Prof. Ruth Phillips.

This record will be open access on the completion of Anne de Stecher's dissertation, 2011.