The moccasins are made of deer hide, blackened or dyed with a dark brown dye. The edging is made of cotton tape. The moccasins have leather laces, laces being a very unusual feature. Moose hair embroidery is red faded to pink. Binding is of coarse linen. The soles are of commercially tanned cowhide.
The British Museum record includes feather as a material, and gives the material as porcupine quill rather than moosehair.

The moccasins have laces, with three holes on either side. They are of a stand-up cuff design with inset vamp construction. They have a European style sole made of leather. The puckering around the moccasin vamp is so unbelievably even we wonder if they used a gauge or shoe making tool to achieve this. The colour of the thong is only dark on one side , which suggests that the colour is a surface treatment.

The moccasins are decorated with stylized floral designs in what could be porcupine quill or possibly moosehair. The British Museum record states that the material is porcupine quill.

The embroidery design and blackened hide support this date range; the European design of the moccasin does not make it later. CW, RP.

Field collected Miramichi Bay, New Brunswick.

Referred to in J.C.H. King, "Thunderbird and Lightning," British Museum Press Ltd, 1982, p.93.

British Museum record

King, J.H.C. Thunderbird and Lightning.British Museum Press Ltd, 1982.

Unknown artist, moccasins. Currently in the British Museum, AM1921,1014.88. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 27282.

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 the British Museum, Dec.8-22, 2007, funded by a grant from the International Opportunities Fund of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).