Moccasins
Moccasins
Moccasins
Moccasins made of caribou hide, embroidered with floral design. Pre-1920. Collected by Frank G. Speck.
NMAI Catalog Card.
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Made of caribou hide, red wool fabric, green silk, purple silk ribbon, embroidery floss, sinew and thread.
Moccasin gathered to vamp, heel has rounded flap stitched on the exterior. Collar is red wool fabric with machine-stitched purple silk applique in a geometric pattern. Decoration on vamp is executed in a fine square chain stitched floral design.
Cath Oberholtzer states that "In general the term "applique" consists of applying or fastening one colour and hand stitching it onto a background panel of another colour, and then stitching the panel to the fabric of the garment" (Oberholtzer 2000: 275). Cath Oberholtzer also notes "skills acquired in earlier indigenous decorative art forms using porcupine quills and birch bark were then applied to this new silk ribbonwork art form" (Oberholtzer 2000: 283). Cath Oberholtzer, "Silk Ribbon Applique: Unravelling the Connections," Papers of the Thirty-first Algonquian Conference. John D. Nicols, editor. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba. pp. 272 - 289.
Five-lobed flowers have two colours plus a third for centre. Vamp is bound with green silk and enhanced with purple silk ribbon rosette.
NMAI Catalog Card.
Provenance
About This GRASAC Record
Item to be cited by accession number, collection and institution.
Record created as part of practicum fall 2008.