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Tobacco Bag

1700–1721
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Porcupine quillwork, an art form unique to North American Indians, is featured on this early bag. The painted symbols and Thunderbird in the quillwork panel reference ritual pipe smoking and the use of tobacco as an act of prayer. Similar bags inspired those made on the Great Plains a century later. In 1721, a French trader, missionary, or military man labeled the bag an “artificial curiosity” and sent it to France from the Canadian colonies.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Tobacco Bag
  • Date: 1700–1721
  • Geography: United States, Great Lakes
  • Culture: Great Lakes, probably Ojibwa
  • Medium: Native-tanned leather, pigment, porcupine quills, metal cones, deer hair
  • Dimensions: Length: 20 1/2 in. (52.1 cm)
    Width: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm)
  • Classification: Leather
  • Credit Line: Musée du quai Branly, Paris (71.1878.32.128)
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing