Knowledge Sharing Platform
basket
basket
basket
A birchbark bowl or basket made from a single piece of birchbark, decorated on one side with a deer motif. Given the location where it was collected and catalogue information it was probably made by an Anishinaabe or Chippewa artist. Collected by G.C. Beltrami in Wisconsin in 1823. Around 1856, Beltrami's nephew donated several objects, including this one, to the Civic Library of Bergamo. Later the collection was transferred to the Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali, its current location.
Leonardo Vigorelli deduces that the "Local Group of Origin", as he writes in the Beltrami Collection''s Catalogue, is "Chippewa".
Based on museum documentation.
Read More About This Relative
birchbark; split root; vegetal fibre or sinew (?)
The bowl or basket is made from a single piece of birchbark, with four incisions made to its sides, with each seam held in place by a small tacking stitch to prevent the bark from splitting. The rim is reinforced with split root and wrapped with vegetal fibre or sinew.
There is an incision which represents a stylized deer.
Provenance
Collected by G.C. Beltrami from Wisconsin in 1823. Beltrami's collection catalogue states that around 1856, Beltrami's nephew donated several objects to the Civic Library of Bergamo, which were later transferred to the Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali.
The Beltrami Collection was exhibited in Florence in 1929 during the "Prima Esposizione Nazionale di Storia delle Scienze" (First National Exposition of History of Sciences"). In 1973, during a celebration of the Beltrami exhibit, Glauco Luchetti donated three objects from his own collection, which were located in Beltrami's last house in Filottrano, to the "Museo Civico E. Caffi". In 1987 the collection was used in the exhibit entitled "Missisippi 1823. Oggetti indiani raccolti da G. Costantino Beltrami" in the Galleria Lorenzelli in Bergamo.
See Beltrami's Collection Catalogue
Leonardo Vigorelli, Gli Oggetti indiani raccolti da G.Costantino Beltrami, Civico Museo E. Caffi, Bergamo, 1987.
About This GRASAC Record
This record has been created by Emanuela Rossi after a trip funded by GRASAC to the Museo Civico E. Caffi in Bergamo, Italy in October 2008.
Researchers present: Emanuela Rossi.
43.6, -71.9
In the Beltrami Collection Catalogue, the author, Leonardo Vigorelli, defines "Upper Mississippi" the Cultural Area of Origin. He defines "Northeast" as the Geographic Area.