Collection: Warnock

Item Number: WC8808027

Category: Shirt

Region: Plains

Tribe: Blackfoot

Period: 1825-1850 - ca. 1830

Materials: Native tanned deerskin; multi-colored glass pony beads; native tanned buffalo hide (bibs and shoulder and sleeve strips); dyed and natural porcupine quills; maidenhair fern; red wool trade cloth; sinew sewn.

Description: Rare, early man's shirt decorated with pony beaded strips on shoulder and sleeves. Beaded strips have simple designs in white, black, and some yellow against a blue background. Quill decorated bibs ornament front and back. Pictographic painting includes two warriors on horseback, scalps, leggings, a blanket, and hair ornaments(?). Fixed to the shirt is a small blue collector's stamp with the number 78.

Dimensions: Length 62 inches 157 cm

Provenance:

From a private museum in Switzerland founded in the 1830s or 1840s
Alexander Gallery
Epic Fine Arts Co./Masco Corp.

Exhibitions:

Splendid Heritage, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, May 27, 1995 - September 27, 1995
Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, October 23, 1998 - October 3, 1999
Splendid Heritage, The Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, February 10, 2009 - March 1, 2010
Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wy, May 1, 2010 - October 31, 2010
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Mo, Febuary 12, 2010 - April 24, 2010

References:

cf. Harrison, Julia D., The Spirit Sings: Artistic Traditions of Canada's First People, A Catalogue of the Exhibition, McClelland and Stewart, Glenbow Museum, Toronto, 1987, pp 72, Fig. P8
Warnock, John and Marva Warnock, eds, Splendid Heritage: Perspectives on American Indian Art, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 2009, pp 34

Notes (click on note to open):

Drs. Ted J. Brasser 2005

Click on photo for larger picture

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