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bag, bandolier
bag, bandolier
bag, bandolier
This ancestor is a bandolier bag, showing early forms of Chippewa loom weaving techniques. Made of wool fabric, yarn, cotton fabric, thread, silk ribbon and glass beads, this ancestor has beaded panels and straps decorated with complex geometric motifs. Pink, green, red, blue, black and yellow motifs include radical cross and X motifs and the checkered diamond. The front beaded panel is loom woven and displays the words "BASIN. DASIN." Curator David Penney thought the artist of the bag could have potentially added her client's names into the design. Professor Alan Corbiere suggests it translates to "He's not listening to it". Alongside these words are floral motifs, beaded on black woven wool. Red, blue, yellow and green chevron shaped edge work is present. Below the wording are beaded silk tassels in a blue, red and white pattern with frayed ends and tan and red embroidery thread. The bandolier bag is soiled and shows signs of past insect damage. There is some breakage and beading loss present. This ancestor is currently located in the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Chippewa
David Penney's 1992 "Art of the American Indian Frontier: The Chandler Pohrt Collection"
Information comes from David Penney's 1992 "Art of the American Indian Frontier: The Chandler Pohrt Collection", Alan Corbiere's notes, as well as the Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue.
Read More About This Relative
wool fabric, yarn, cotton fabric and thread, silk ribbon, glass beads
The pouch and strap are of black plain weave wool, decorated with three panels of loom-woven beadwork and beaded fringes with silk tassels. The strap is composed of two sections with panels of loom-woven beadwork. At the juncture of the two sections, there are finger-like extensions ending in silken tassels. Technical: warp and weft- S plied vegetable fiber (for beadwork). Two strand weft twining (bead replaces weft). Red wool embroidery as edging/finish.
One beaded panel bears the legend, BASIN.DASIN, and the others have complex geometric motifs. Floral design in bead embroidery.
David Penney observed that this bag is an example of early loom-woven beadwork, indicated by the highly intricate and fine-lined design, geometric-bordering-on-floral motif, wide variety of colours and translucencies, and very small bead size. He further observed that there are similarities with Cree woven quillwork pattern: "two contrasting motifs alternate on early woven beadwork strips : A B A B."
The Detroit Institute of Arts states that, "Creating and wearing articles of dress and formal clothing is an important means of cultural expression among Native American people. This elaborately decorated pouch, with a broad shoulder strap, was worn as part of an ensemble for ceremonial and social events. The method of double-weft bead weaving, requiring the use of a box loom, quickly became the most popular technique employed throughout the Great Lakes and is still used today."
Text can be translated as "He's not listening to it" (Alan Corbiere).
Pohrt comments in a hand-written note dated September 1982, "One of the interesting features about it is that it has a man's name in beadwork on the bag proper. I know of one other bag, probably made by the same person which is at the Detroit Historical Museum, and I understand there is a third one at the art museum in Kansas City, although I have never seen the specimen, but apparently all made by the same woman."
According to Pohrt, "This is a fine early example which dates [to] approximately 1850 or slightly before."
Provenance
(Forrest Fenn, Fenn Galleries, Sante Fe, New Mexico, USA) (Purchased from Forrest Fenn, Fenn Galleries, Santa Fe, NM, 1975)
1975, purchased by Richard A. Pohrt [1911-2005] (Flint, Michigan, USA)
1981-present, purchased 1981 by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
As stated by the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Penney, David W. Art of the American Indian Frontier: The Chandler-Pohrt Collection. Seattle and London, 1992, cat. no. 38.
Whiteford, A. H. "The Origins of Great Lakes Beaded Bandolier Bags." American Indian Art 11, no. 3 (Summer 1986): 35, fig. 4, (col. ill.).
About This GRASAC Record
This record was augmented by Natasha Fares on February 1st, 2024. The photographs were removed by Natasha Fares on February 1st, 2024 to respect an agreement between the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Michigan Anishinaabeg Communities of Practice group.