Materials

smoked hide; sinew; wooden splints; porcupine quills, large white, and dyed red, yellow and black quills; metal cones; deer hair, dyed red

Techniques or Format

The sheath's body is made of smoked hide, sewn with sinew. Its front is made with two wooden splints, and is decorated with panels of woven quillwork. The quills have been wrapped around two wooden splints to form patterns on the sheath's front decorative panel. The dyed quills appear to be unfaded, close to their original colours. Some strands of deer hair in the tufts extending from the metal cone jinglers are unusually long - the tufts have been cut at two different lengths. CW said this sort of treatment is sometimes found on feathers.

Motifs and Patterns

The quillwork has been done in geometric patterns-- diamonds, zig zags and stripes.

Dimensions: 27.5 × 4.5 × 0 cm

Condition: Heather Richardson of the Pitt Rivers Museum says this item is in good condition.

RP noted that the dyes are "quite brilliant" and close to their original colours.

Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

Pitt Rivers Museum object catalogue.

Current Location: Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, United Kingdom

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 1954.9.46

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1954

Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Irene Marguerite Beasley

Collection Narratives and Histories

This sheath was donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum by Mrs. Irene Marguerite Beasley in 1954. The wife of British brewer and avid collector Harry Geoffrey Beasley, Mrs. Beasley oversaw the transfer of several items in her husband's collection to various museums upon his death. In 1931 it entered Harry Beasley's own collection, held at his Cranmore Musuem in Kent, and was one of several items subsequently transferred to the Blackmore Museum in Salisbury, before reaching the Pitt Rivers Museum.

GKS Reference Number: 25676

Record Creation Context

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).

Record Creation Notes/Observations

researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), Al Corbiere (AC), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Laura Peers (LP), Ruth Phillips (RP), Anne De Stecher (AS), Cory Willmott (CW).