parfleche

unrecorded Plains artist, artist

parfleche, late 1800s–1980

Where object was made: Great Plains, United States

Material/technique: rawhide; paint; buckskin

Dimensions:
Object Length/Width/Depth (Length x Width x Depth): 66 x 38.5 x 4 cm
Object Length/Width/Depth (Length x Width x Depth): 15 3/16 x 26 x 1 9/16 in

Credit line: Gift of Ann and Britt Brown, Blackbear Bosin Collection

Accession number: 2007.6271

Not on display

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Variously embellished with porcupine quills, glass beads, and pigment, these bags illustrate abstract Native American art from the Great Plains produced during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists wove fragile hand-dyed porcupine quills into bold patterns, exemplified by the simple but striking central panel on this Arapaho pipe bag. After European traders inundated local markets with new goods, quills were gradually-but never wholly-supplanted by glass beads, which were incorporated onto shoes, clothing, and accessories like this dispatch bag. Leather, buckskin, and rawhide also provided a medium for painting. Women used saturated pigments to design bold rectilinear geometric patterns akin to the diamond and triangular forms seen on this parfleche, or carrying envelope.

Exhibition Label:
"Roots and Journeys: Encountering Global Arts and Cultures," Jun-2013, Cassandra Mesick
Variously embellished with porcupine quills, glass beads, and pigment, these bags illustrate abstract Native American art from the Great Plains produced during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists wove fragile hand-dyed porcupine quills into bold patterns, exemplified by the simple but striking central panel on this Arapaho pipe bag. After European traders inundated local markets with new goods, quills were gradually-but never wholly-supplanted by glass beads, which were incorporated onto shoes, clothing, and accessories like this dispatch bag. Leather, buckskin, and rawhide also provided a medium for painting. Women used saturated pigments to design bold rectilinear geometric patterns akin to the diamond and triangular forms seen on this parfleche, or carrying envelope.