Costume Item Number: Z 19214 A-B from the MAA: University of Cambridge
Description
A: Two shirts of buckskin hide, quite similar to each other. Decorated with blue and white sequins, along with various anthropomorphic figures and heads on one shirt. B: buckskin leggings
'A1: Shirt with animal (?deer) hooves attached to the fringes of the arms. There are traces of red dye on the shirt. The sleeves have 2 small bands with white and blue beads. There are fringes on the arm openings, the bottom edge and along the sides. There are small holes at the back. A2: Shirt with fringes at the arms and the sides. The shirt is painted in black with anthropomorphic designs at the front and the back. There are some red, white blue beads at the back. The front has a disk motif with white and blue beads. The sleeves have painted white and black stripes painted. There are also ribbons hanging from the shirt. B: The leggings are undecorated. There are short fringes at the sides, top and bottom of the leggings. F. Veys, 14/9/2005'Martin Schultz suggested that the pendents on A1 are puffin beaks.
Context
'Label on Z 19214 B reads: Auction Cat ST, Date 8/9/25, Lot 30/, Price 75/-, 17451, 17452, 17453 Object Leggings buckskin American Indian, Accession No 35349, Check number 17452 25/Sept/1943 The back of the same label reads: Fancy dress. F. Veys, 14/9/2005'Ruth Philips suggested that these shirts are likely to be from the Amerian Plains groups. Woodlands GRASAC projectMartin Shultz noted this shirt human heads not attached to a body that I would like to show as an example of George Catlins depiction of Plains Indian war honour paintings and in comparison to another shirt of the same type at the Deutsches Ledermuseum. From notes by M. Schultz, 12 April 2012. He is now Head of Ethnographic Collections at Mannheim Museum, Germany
Item History
- Received from George Catlin
What
Who
- Culture
- Plains ?, Subarctic ? or Northwest Coast ?
- Received from
- George Catlin
Where
- Holding Institution
- MAA: University of Cambridge
- Made in
- “Americas; North America” ?
Other
- Keyword
- Clothing; Textiles