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Shoulder bag

ca. 1780
Not on view
Porcupine quills are applied in three distinct ways on this late eighteenth-century shoulder pouch. For the horizontal panels, the artist loom wove colorfully dyed quills. Across the bottom and top, she sewed naturally white quills directly onto the black-dyed leather to create a zigzag motif. Finally, she wrapped dyed quills around alternating pairs of leather thongs for the strap, giving it a distinctive netlike structure. This type of netted quillwork disappeared by the early nineteenth century.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Shoulder bag
  • Date: ca. 1780
  • Geography: Possibly made in Minnesota, United States; Possibly made in Wisconsin, United States; Possibly made in Ontario, Canada
  • Culture: Anishinaabe, probably Ojibwa, Native American
  • Medium: Tanned leather, porcupine quills, dye, metal cones, deer hair, vegetal fiber, and wool yarn
  • Dimensions: 21 1/2 × 7 3/4 in. (54.6 × 19.7 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of Native American Art, Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 2018
  • Object Number: 2018.867.4
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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