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napkin holders, set of 6
napkin holders, set of 6
napkin holders, set of 6
A set of six birch bark napkin holders, 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.
Manufacturing 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, white thread, flattened roots and porcupine quills, natural and dyed green, purple/magenta, blue, and yellow. Aniline dyes were used to colour the porcupine quills.
Rings of birch bark sewn with thread and edged in flattened root. Decorated with porcupine quillwork.
Floral and berry designs.
British Museum accession record. Father Purbrick acquired the napkin holders, along with other similarly-quilled birch 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.
2004-2005 - 'Native American Art: Irish American Trade,' Northern Ireland.
Items are mentioned 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.
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, napkin holders, set of 6. Currently in the British Museum, Am2003,19.25-30. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 26574.
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).