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knife sheath
knife sheath
knife sheath
Knife sheath, decorated with five different quillwork techniques. Anishinaabeg or Haudenosaunee, made in the eighteenth century. Donated to the British Museum by Henry Christy, who collected it between 1860 and 1869.
This sheath shares stylistic features characteristic of Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee items.
Created with information from the British Museum accession record and observations made by the GRASAC research team.
Read More About This Relative
The sheath's body is made of lightly smoked deer hide and its strap is made from pieces of leather thong. Both body and strap are decorated with porcupine quills dyed black, white and red, with the red quills having faded to orange. A leather thong fringe and small metal cones containing red dyed moose or deer hair decorate the sheath.
The sheath has been sewn together and decorated with with quillwork. Five different quillwork techniques are used on this item: embroidery, folded quillwork (on lower portion of front), netted quillwork (on upper portion, just under opening), quill wrapping (on the thongs on straps), and loom woven quillwork (at the top of the neck strap). This item is of high-quality craftsmanship, but this calibre is typical of the period in which it was made.
A checkerboard motif is found on the sheath. The neckstrap is decorated with concentric squares resembling wampum.
This style of sheath is typical of the 18th century.
Provenance
Collected by Henry Christy between 1860-1869 and subsequently donated to the British Museum. The British Museum object catalogue has conflicting information on the collection of this item, stating that it was found in either Alberta or Montana. Both suggestions conflict with the GRASAC research team's location attribution, based upon stylistic characteristics, of the Great Lakes region.
JCH King, 'Thunderbird and Lightning' (1982) p.18.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Anishinaabeg/Haudenosaunee artist, knife sheath. Currently in the British Museum, Am,St.780. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 24534.
This record was created as part of a Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures (GRASAC) research trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum and British Museum, December 8-22 2007, funded by a grant from the International Opportunities fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), John Borrows (JB), Lindsay Borrows (LB), Alan Corbiere (AC), Henrietta Lidchi (HL), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Anne De Stecher (AS), Cory Willmott (CW).