Knowledge Sharing Platform
box
box
box
Birch bark box decorated with porcupine quillwork. Anishinaabeg, 19th century, probably from Manitoulin. Collected by Father Edward Purbrick in 1879 and donated to Stonyhurst College. One of several items purchased by the British Museum from Stonyhurst College in 2003.
Manufacture techniques and style.
Created with information from the British Museum accession record and observations made by the GRASAC research team.
Read More About This Relative
Made of birch bark, flattened root, twisted vegetable fibre and cotton thread, and dyed porcupine quills, natural and dyed purple, magenta, blue, green and yellow, with aniline dyes. Aniline dyes were used to colour the porcupine quills.
Pieces of birch bark have been attached together and edged with flattened root. The lid is attached by cotton thread string along one edge that has come apart. The tie at the front of the lid is made of twisted vegetable fibre. The box is decorated with porcupine quillwork.
Floral motifs.
This item is a fine example of how talented Anishinaabeg artists pushed the limits of their medium. See Ruth Phillips, Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900 (1998: 182).
A label inside the box reads "work-box made by Indians of Upper Canada. Given by the Rev. E.I. Purbrick, S.J."
British Museum accession record. Father Edward Purbrick acquired this item, along with other similarly-quilled birch bark pieces, while on a tour of inspection of Canadian Jesuit missions in the Central and Eastern Great Lakes region.
Provenance
Collected by Father Edward Purbrick in 1879 and subsequently donated to Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school in Lancashire. The Stonyhurst Collection was purchased by the British Museum in 2003.
2004-05 - 'Native American Art: Irish American Trade,' shown in Northern Ireland.
An image of this item is published in Ruth Phillips, Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998), 3.
A description of Father Edward Purbrick's collection and a discussion on the decorative styles of many of the birch bark items is found in Ruth Phillips, Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998), 182-3.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Anishinaabeg artist, box. Currently in the British Museum, Am2003,19.23. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 25598.
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), Darlene Johnston (DJ), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Cory Willmott (CW).