Materials

Tin cones, deer hair, quillwork, leather, thread, colors (dark red, orange, white, blue?)

Techniques or Format

The double knife case is 28 cm high and up to 10cm wide.
Tin cones filled with white and red-dyed deer hair. On the main front, quillwork decoration in different techniques and colors (dark red, orange, white and blue?). Tiny white quillwork around the whole case. Upper part, with white and orange quillwork. No decoration on the backside.

Motifs and Patterns

Asymmetric quillwork designs: wavy, triangular

Dimensions: 0 × 0 × 0 mm

Condition: - Colors faded
- Quillwork partly lost (upper part)
- Three punctures with a ca. 2 cm long rip (supposedly from old display)
- Leather is slightly corrugated
- Dirt

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

Date attribution by Christian Feest, anthropologist and former director of the Völkerkundemuseum in Vienna. Published in Ch. Feest (ed.) "Studies in American Indian", p. 192ff.

Current Location: Historisches und Völkerkundemuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: D 1446

Collection at Current Location: North America Collection, Historisches und Völkerkundemuseum St. Gallen (HVMSG)

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1922-12-22

Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Entry book and Museum's correspondence archival

Collection Narratives and Histories

Louis Täschler, the collector, was a locally known photographer from St. Gallen at the end of the 19th century. His diary tells us that he had a passion for “ethnographic items” from all over the world but especially from Asia and the Middle East. During and after the First World War Täschler became impoverished and sold precious objects two days before Christmas Eve in 1922 to the Historische und Völkerkundemuseum St. Gallen.

Publication History

Christian F. Feest (ed.): Studies in American Indian Art, Seattle, London: University of Washington Press.

GKS Reference Number: 24739

How to Cite this Item

D 1446, "Double Knife Case" from the Historische und Völkerkundemuseum St. Gallen