Porcupine quill; dye, orange, white, black; vegetable fibre; leather; metal.

This belt is woven with porcupine quill wrapped around the warp threads and weft threads separating the quill wrapping into rows. This makes the quill work look quite like shell beads. To form the fringe, groups of warp strands are wrapped together with quill.

The geometric motifs suggest that this belt could be of Huron-Wendat or Haudenosaunee origin.

The material in the Bibliothèque Nationale du France was collected before 1792. Autumn Epple thinks based on style and materials it dates between 1700 and 1760.

The ethnographic works from the Bibliothèque Nationale du France were brought together in this collection at the time of the French Revolution, around 1792. The Bibliothèque Nationale was the national collection of the new French Republic. Many of these works originally came from the Jardin du Roi, the collection of the French kings. In the same period, inventories were made of the possessions of aristocratic families in Paris and the provinces and many objects were selected to be added to the Bibliothèque Nationale. Ethnographic material from the Bibliothèque Nationale was later located at the Musée d'ethnographie du Trocadéro, then the Musée de l’Homme, and is now in the Musée du quai Branly.AD.

Unknown artist, belt. Currently in the Musée du quai Branly, 71.1878.32.65. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip; GRASAC item id 1397.

This record was created by Anne de Stecher during an RAship for Prof. Ruth Phillips.

This record will become open access on the completion of Anne de Stecher's dissertation, 2011.