Materials

Smoked black dyed hide, porcupine quill in white, reddish dark brown, and orange (this may have been white, black, and red before fading), tendon for sewing the seams and the quill work.

Techniques or Format

The pouch is made out of either one piece sewn at the two sides with one end folded over to form the flap, or of two pieces sewn on the three sides with one piece longer to fold over as the flap. The quill work is in bands of zigzag pattern and a pattern of parallel lines of quill.

There are parallel lines of zigzag quill at the edges of the three sides of the pouch.

Motifs and Patterns

There is a central motif on the front of the pouch that looks like a shield. Four lines of zigzag quill work radiate from the motif at the center of the pouch to the four corners. There is a similar circular motif on the flap.

There are motifs of U-shapes arranged on the front of the pouch in lines moving from the central circle motif to the edges. The effect is of lines radiating from the center to the edges and corners.

Other Notes

On the back of the pouch there are two labels. One has the number 523, the other has: No.5; Cinq (?); D'___lsclignac (?). The text is difficult to make out.

Dimensions: 17 × 14.5 × 1.2 mm

Condition: Poor. The hide is very dry, there are some holes, there is considerable loss of quill.

Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

The ethnographic material in the Bibliotheque nationale was collected before c. 1792. Autumn Epple thinks based on materials and still it dates between 1700 and 1770.

Current Location: Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris, France

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 71.1878.32.130

Link to Institution's Collections Database: www.quaibranly.fr

Collection Narratives and Histories

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 in the Musée d'ethnographie du Trocadéro, then the Musée de l’Homme, and is now in the Musée du quai Branly.

Related language items in the GKS: gshkibdaagan

GKS Reference Number: 1393

How to Cite this Item

Unknown artist, pouch. Currently in the Musée du quai Branly, 71.1878.32.130. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip; GRASAC item id 1393.

Record Creation Context

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

Copyright

This record was created during the research for Anne de Stecher's dissertation and will be open to access in 2011 on the completion of her dissertation.