Materials

Coarse stroud, dark blue; stroud, red; woolen ribbon, red; beads (size 10) white, translucent mustard, green, black, red, turquoise; thread, cream-coloured.

Techniques or Format

A dark blue woollen bag with rounded top corners and a beadwork panel half as long as the bag attached to its bottom edge. The bag is decorated with a strip of red ribbon between a yellow and white bead design around three edges, including along the opening along the top edge, on both sides. In the centre of both the front and back of the bag is a circle of red wool with its centre cut out, edged with white beads. There are two circles cut out of the bag on one side only, towards the upper edge, edged with yellow beads behind which are fragements of blue ribbon, perhaps used to fasten the bag. On the same side, in the lower left corner, is a small segmented circle embroidered in cream thread. This embroidered design is repeated on the other side of the bag in both corners. Buttonhole and chain stitch are used on the upper panel. The beaded panel below contains geometric designs. The fringe is made of strands of beads with red woollen tassels.

Motifs and Patterns

The beaded panel contains arrows, the hourglass motif, and triangles resembling the crayfish-pattern. Circles are found on the upper panel.

Additional Context

The cirlces may be forms of sun imagery: does the hole in 'sun' in the bag's centre represent the hole in the sky, the axis mundi which leads one through cosmic zones? The segmented circles embroidered on the bag's corners resemble icons on rose blankets.

Dimensions: 30 × 24 × 0 cm

Condition: Small holes in the bag may have been caused by insect damage.

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

The cloth and beads used in the bag's construction suggest that it was made between 1790 and 1830.

Current Location: Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, United Kingdom

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 1884.69.16

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1884

Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: South Kensington Museum

Date Relative was First Removed or Collected from its Community Context: before 1880

Collection Narratives and Histories

Part of Pitt Rivers' founding collection. In 1884, the item was transferred to the Pitt Rivers Museum from the South Kensington Museum (later named the Victoria and Albert Museum). It was one of several items delivered to the South Kensington Museum in 1880, to be held until a permanent home was made for Pitt Rivers' collection in Oxford.

GKS Reference Number: 25467

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 grants from the International Opportunities fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Pasold Research Fund.

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).