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wampum belt
wampum belt
wampum belt
Wampum belt, Northeastern Woodlands, made between 1600-1820. Collected by the English ethnologist Henry Christy, this belt was purchased by the British Museum in 1931 from A K Hemming, a trustee of the Christy Collection.
Manufacture style suggests this item is Anishinaabeg or Hodenosaunee.
Created with information from the British Museum accession record and observations made by the GRASAC research team.
Read More About This Relative
Made of white and purple wampum, with a vegetable fibre weft and anmial skin warps. The oval figure is made of animal skin and thin white disc-shaped shell beads.
The belt is 170 beads long, with 17 hide warps on one end of the belt and 15 on the other. Most of the belt is 16 beads wide, and the end with 15 warps has 12 beads wide. Tied to one end of the warped fringe is a small zoomorphic figure made of animal skin tabs and thong, onto which is strung white shell beads. At the other end of the belt, abrasions to the warps suggest additional wefts once existed. Weft shadows may also be found on the end with the zoomorphic figure.
The design on the belt is done in purple beads upon a white bead background, consisting of two parallel zig-zag lines which touch one edge of the belt 7 times and the other 8 times. At one end, one of the purple lines is done in a step pattern rather than a straight line, like the others. The zoomorphic figure may be a turtle, however, AC thought it was a beaver.
1600-1820 is the production date range suggested in the British Museum's object catalogue entry for this item.
Provenance
This belt was purchased by the British Museum in 1931 from A K Hemming, a trustee of a collection of items amassed by the English ethnologist Henry Christy. the British Museum accession record states it was founf in the Eastern United States.
TA Joyce, BM Quarterly (1932): 86-7. King (1982): 66-67. Green (1999): 170.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Annishinabeg/Haudenosaunee artist, wampum belt. Currently in the British Museum, Am1931,-.12. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2007; GRASAC item id 25339.
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 British Museum, December 8-22 2007, funded by a grant from the International Opportunities fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), John Borrows (JB), Lindsay Borrows (LB), Alan Corbiere (AC), Henrietta Lidchi (HL), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Bruce Morito (BM), Ruth Phillips (RP), Anne De Stecher (AS), Cory Willmott (CW).