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mat
mat
mat
Mat made of birch bark, sweetgrass, and spruce 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 from information in the British Museum object catalogue.
Read More About This Relative
Made of birch bark, sweetgrass, flattened root, black or drak brown thread and porcupine quills, natural and dyed purple, magenta, green, yellow, blue, and white. Aniline dyes were used to colour the porcupine quills.
Four birch bark discs, each edged in coiled sweetgrass and dyed porcupine quills form the mat's centre. A section of coiled sweetgrass is wrapped around the four discs, followed by a row of flattened root placed in a zig zag pattern, finished with another section of coiled sweetgrass. Porcupine quillwork decorates the birch bark discs.
Berry motifs with small 'x's.
British Museum accession record. Father Edward Purbrick acquired this item, along with other similarly-quilled birch bark pieces, while on a tour of inspection to the English Catholic missions in the Central and Eastern Great Lakes region.
Provenance
Collected by Father Edward Purbrick in 1879 and subsequently donated to the 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, Am2003,19.58. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 25208.
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), Jonathan King (JK), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Cory Willmott (CW).