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quilled birchbark box
quilled birchbark box
quilled birchbark box
Quilled, round birchbark box with a lid, featuring colourful, dyed floral designs and motifs made of porcupine quills. This item was collected by Johann Georg Schwarz in the 1820s, and it is currently housed at the Weltmuseum Wien, Austria.
Read More About This Relative
Birch bark, porcupine quills.
Use of quills to edge the top lid, in place of the moosehair that is used on Wendat work; inside is filled with undyed quills and spruce root. round box with lid.
Designs are floral; bottom has incised lines for a floral motif.
Johann Georg Schwarz collected this item, possibly when he traveled to Detroit and through Upper Canada in the winter of 1820-1821.
Provenance
Johann Georg Schwarz traveled to Detroit and through Upper Canada in the winter of 1820-1821.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Indigenous artist, quilled birchbark box. Currently in the Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria, 11994. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip January 2016; GRASAC item id 59002.
In January of 2016, a small team of GRASAC researchers visited the collection to study and photograph it: Ruth Phillips, Lisa Truong, Naomi Recollet (Anishinaabe (Odawa/Ojibwe), Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory) and Wahsontiio Cross (Mohawk, Kahnawake). This GKS record was created in November of 2021 by GRASAC RA Aidan Mitchell-Boudreau.