Materials

Black steatite, lead inlay

Techniques or Format

Pipe bowl with flared bowl and small elbow, engraved with six parallel rings part way around the stem end

Motifs and Patterns

Four lead inlay circles on the four sides of the bowl and one on each side of the base

Dimensions: 10 × 0 × 6 cm

Condition: One lead inlay circle is missing from the back of the bowl, signs of use and possible tobacco residue in bowl, there is a crack around the base of the bowl and a rounded piece of metal inserted into one of the wholes from which the lead inlay has fallen out (this may be the "white man's mending" mentioned in the catalogue)

Current Location: Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, Canada

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: HD6296

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1911

Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Independent Order of Foresters

Publication History

F. Barlow Cumberland, Catalogue and Notes of the Oronhyatekha Historical Collection (Toronto: Independent Order of Foresters, 1904), p 44,

Item 223. "Steatite Pipe of Chief Tecumseh, mended by white man's method."

GKS Reference Number: 1082

How to Cite this Item

Unknown artist, pipe of Tecumseh. Currently in the Royal Ontario Museum, HD6296. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2008; GRASAC item id 1082.

Copyright

GRASAC team research trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, Dec 15-19 2008, funded by SSHRC Aboriginal Research Grant. Participants: Heidi Bohaker, Alan Corbiere, Lewis Debassige, Anne De Stecher, Darlene Johnston, Stacey Loyer, Trudy Nicks, Ruth Phillips

Dec 17 Ethnology team - Trudy Nicks, Cory Willmott, Ruth Phillips, Stacey Loyer, assisted by Tracey Forester