- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Large flat panel and sash, of commercial textiles, sewn with commercial thread, decorated in spot-stitch (overlay) technique in floral beadwork. [E.S-R 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 7/1/2005]
- Geographical reference
- Great Lakes
- Cultural groups
- Ojibwe
- Person
- Field collector Mrs Ponsonby M.L. Carew
- PRM source Mrs Ponsonby M.L. Carew
- PRM source Daniel Wood Herdman
- Date / Period
- Date made: Circa 1900
- Date collected
- By 1945
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1945
- Materials and processes
- Material Bead, Material Textile, Material Yarn, Process Beadwork, Process Woven
- Dimensions
- Width: max 400 mm, Length: max 955 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1945.6.120
- Research and responses
Information from Laura Peers, 1998: This is actually a bandolier bag, common in the W Great Lakes region, also found farther West especially the Plateau; occasionally used as a horse decoration but most often just worn across the body by men on ceremonial occasions.
According to Laura Peers (12 September 2001), this piece is Ojibwa in style. This has thus been suggested as a group provenance, with Great Lakes as a regional provenance. [CW 12/9/2001]
Examined by the GRASAC research team on 12 December 2007 as part of a research project to create a digital database. This will incorporate information about collections of indigenous material culture from the Great Lakes region of North America that are housed in a number of museums on several continents; see https://icslac.carleton.ca/grasac/ [see researchers file GRASAC]. The team identified the materials as coarse linen on the front, decorated with spot-stitch beadwork with size 10 glass beads in white, light and dark green, brown, light and dark blue, yellow, red, pink and dark coral. The backing is made of cotton, brown and beige with floral calico print, which is unusual because it is striped. Binding an unusual type of burgundy worsted fabric. Floral and leaf motifs and asymmetry of motifs on shoulder are both typical Anishinaabe. Made in the Great Lakes region probably between 1880 and 1910 because of the bag’s fabric lining. Purpose of bag in the original context was probably for a conspicuous display of tradition at a time when the mide and other traditions were being discouraged. In this period people would show up to treaty ceremonies wearing black European-style suits, with two or more of these bags. [ZM 15/05/2008]
Search terms: Bag, Ornament, Ceremonial Object, Sash Belt