bowl

bowl

bowl

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Introduction

Bowl made of sweetgrass and birch bark. Made by Mahiian Pakwatchikwe Shawana. Anishinaabeg, 19th century, probably from Manitoulin. One of several items collected by Father Edward Purbrick in 1879 and donated to Stonyhurst College. Part of the collection purchased by the British Museum from Stonyhurst College in 2003.

Nation of Maker: Anishinaabe
Nation of Origin

Construction techniques. In addition, according to Al Corbiere, the maker's name is common to Wikiwemikong.

Date Made or Date Range: 1800s to 1879
Summary of Source(s) for this Relative

Created from information in the British Museum object catalogue and observations made by the GRASAC research team.

Materials

Made of sweetgrass, birch bark, dark thread and porcupine quills dyed yellow and magenta. Aniline dyes were used to colour the porcupine quills.

Techniques or Format

A piece of birch bark forms the bakset's base. The sides are made of coiled sweetgrass woven with dark thread.

Motifs and Patterns

Leaf motifs.

Other Notes

The open work on the side is done in sweetgrass rather than flattened root, which is the material usually used on other baskets and bowls of this sort.

Dimensions: 22.5 × 20 × 4 cm
Condition: Good. Some of the quills are broken.
Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

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.

Current Location: British Museum, London, UK
Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: Am2003,19.49
Collection at Current Location: Purbrick Collection
Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 2003
Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Stonyhurst College
Date Relative was First Removed or Collected from its Community Context: 1879
Collection Narratives and Histories

Collected by Father Edward Purbrick in 1879 and subsequently donated to the Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school in Lancashire. The Stonyhurst Collection was purchased by the British Museum in 2003.

Sources to Learn More

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.

GKS Reference Number: 27070
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), John Borrows (JB), Lindsay Borrows (LB), Darlene Johnston (DJ), Jonathan King (JK), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Cory Willmott (CW).

Approximate Place of Origin

44.736, -88.788

Source of Information about Places

According to Al Corbiere, the maker's name is common to Wikiwemikong. Although manufacture techniques and style strongly suggest Manitoulin as a region of origin, further research is needed to confirm this.

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