Buckskin Shawl/Mantle

Item number E20807-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

FROM CARD: "PAINTED. ILLUS. IN THE FAR NORTH CATALOG, NAT. GALL. OF ART, 1973, P. 218. 20,807. LOANED TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART OCTOBER 20, 1972. RETURNED 5-29-73. LOANED TO THE S.I. CENTENNIAL COMM. 7-9-75. LOAN RETURNED FEB 8 1988.LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG.430, P.303. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 7, NORTHWEST COAST, FIG. 7 LEFT, PG. 245. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." Crossroads of Continents caption identifies this as: "Painted skin robe, Haida. The squatting semihuman beings painted on this fringed skin robe have toothed mouths, clawed hands, and pierced (or eyed) palms - features also seen in Eskimo and Tlingit art. The border design, probably a sea lion, is a bilaterally symmetrical split image of a single beast. Axial symmetry, also seen in the central figures, is an important principle in Northwest Coast and Old Bering Sea art. Skin robes of this type may have been the predecessors of the appliqued button blanket, their ornamented borders equivalent to the latter's red flannel, button-decorated borders."Anthropology catalogue ledger book identifies this object as Swan original # 51. List in accession file identifies #51 as "1 buckskin dancing shawl, Haidah Indian at Howkan village Prince of Wales Island [sic, Howkan is on Long Island] Alaska."