Tanned, smoked hide; deer dew claws; porcupine quill, faded red,white, black; tendon; what looks like ochre colouring on parts of moccasin.

This moccasin is constructed of one main piece with a tongue added. This double tongue is edged in quill.

Dew claws hang from very thin strips of the hide that have been trimmed from the moccasins. There are loops in this hide below the dew claw and these are wrapped in porcupine quill.

No cuff. The edging around the top of the moccasin is quill with what looks like plant stalk folded over and held in place with broad brown quill.

Stitching is in rows of zigzag stitch.

The quill work is in zigzag stitch in horizontal bands across the toe.

There is only one moccasin

The material in the Bibliothèque Nationale du France was collected before 1792. Autumn Epple believes based on the materials that they date between 1700 and 1750.

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

Unknown artist, moccasin. Currently in the Musée du quai Branly, 71.1878.32.72. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip; GRASAC item id 1352.

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

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