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1939.7.10B

Apron or waist ornament, made of cotton string and beadwork in a cross pattern in pink and green on a white background. [N.B. 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 7/6/2005]

On display

1939.7.10B

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Collection type
Object
Description
Apron or waist ornament, made of cotton string and beadwork in a cross pattern in pink and green on a white background. [N.B. 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 7/6/2005]
Cultural groups
Macusi
Person
Field collector Walter Grainge White
PRM source Walter Grainge White
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1939
Date collected
By 1939
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1939
Materials and processes
Material String, Material Cotton Seed Fibre Yarn Plant, Material Bead, Material Net Textile, Process Netted, Process Beadwork
Dimensions
Length: max 133 mm, Width: max 185 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1939.7.10B Other PRM accession number: 1939.7.B 10
Research and responses

Related Documents File - Correspondence between Walter Grainge White and Thomas Penniman, determining which items offered by Grainge White would be purchased by the Museum. There are notes written on Grainge White's letters by Penniman's assistant that indicate the items that were of interest, or too expensive and which could be returned. Excerpt from Grainge White's letter: 'But BEAD aprons are not original Makuchi. They used coloured seeds for beads. Now they obtain by barter European or American beads!! -- saves time and trouble!!' [GI 10/12/2001]

Peter Riviere has supplied the following information about beaded women's aprons from British Guyana: 'On highdays and holidays, or festivals, the only covering which the females wore was the quieyoo, an article of dress, worked out of seeds of trees, about ten inches long, and six or eight broad, hung in front of the person by a string fastened round the loins. These are now tastefully worked with beads to represent the flowers, fruits and animals around the Indians in the bush, and will cost from six to ten shillings when sold to Europeans.' (p. 261, Rev Robert Duff, British Guiana, being notes on a few of its natural productions, industiral occupations, and social institutions. Thomas Murray & Co., Glasgow, 1866) (Laura Peers, 16/11/2007)

Search terms: Clothing, Ornament, Trade, Apron, Waist Ornament, Groin-cover

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