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mat
mat
mat
Mat made of birch bark, sweetgrass and flattened root, decorated with porcupine quillwork. 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.
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 mark, coiled sweetgrass, flattened root and porcupine quills, natural and dyed purple, magenta, yellow and green. Aniline dyes were used to colour the porcupine quills.
Four birch bark discs, each edged with root and decorated with porcupine quillwork are in the centre of the mat. They are surrounded by coiled sweetgrass, followed by a root bent into a zig zag pattern, followed by another section of coiled sweetgrass.
A single tri-berry motif is on each birch bark disc.
Ruth Phillips said this sort of mat was placed underneath lamps to catch dripping oil.
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
One of several items 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.
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, mat. Currently in the British Museum, Am2003,19.54. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 27102
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).