Object types moccasin
Materials vegetal ,skin ,porcupine quill, metal, hair
Techniques smoked, sewn, quillwork
Place (findspot) Found/Acquired Great Lakes
Date 1750-1770
Ethnic group Made by Northeast People
Description
Pair of moccasins, constructed from single pieces of a smoked fairly heavy skin, with a vertical heel seam, amnd a central instep seam, with gathering or puckering towards the pointed toes. Each moccasin has two rectangular ankle flaps, added to the body of the moccasins, and a thin skin tie, taken through pierced double holes at the top, on either side, of the instep seams. The instep seam is decorated with three lines of quillwork in zig-zag line technique, extending half way down, where on each moccasin there are two pairs of hair [now lost] filled metal cones, the central line extending down to the tip of the toes, and the other two lines stopping at the point of attachment for the metal cones. Quill colour is orange and white; the quillwork is enclosed in running stitches wrapped in white quills. The heel seams were formerly covered in lines of similar orange quillwork. Each of the four ankle flaps is decorated in four rows of quillwork in zig-zag line technique, with a thin fifth row at the bottom edge of the flaps. The ground colour is orange, with on the inside flaps three blocks of colour in white and blue quillwork, with the fifth row in black and white. The outside ankle flaps are decorated with similar designs, but most of the contrasting colours are in mustard and blue, with white only in the central blocks. Sewing is in a brown vegetal thread. The bottom inside edges of the four ankle flaps are decorated with a line of skin thongs, each ending in a soft red hair filled metal cone.
Description
Pair of moccasins, constructed from single pieces of a smoked fairly heavy skin, with a vertical heel seam, amnd a central instep seam, with gathering or puckering towards the pointed toes. Each moccasin has two rectangular ankle flaps, added to the body of the moccasins, and a thin skin tie, taken through pierced double holes at the top, on either side, of the instep seams. The instep seam is decorated with three lines of quillwork in zig-zag line technique, extending half way down, where on each moccasin there are two pairs of hair [now lost] filled metal cones, the central line extending down to the tip of the toes, and the other two lines stopping at the point of attachment for the metal cones. Quill colour is orange and white; the quillwork is enclosed in running stitches wrapped in white quills. The heel seams were formerly covered in lines of similar orange quillwork. Each of the four ankle flaps is decorated in four rows of quillwork in zig-zag line technique, with a thin fifth row at the bottom edge of the flaps. The ground colour is orange, with on the inside flaps three blocks of colour in white and blue quillwork, with the fifth row in black and white. The outside ankle flaps are decorated with similar designs, but most of the contrasting colours are in mustard and blue, with white only in the central blocks. Sewing is in a brown vegetal thread. The bottom inside edges of the four ankle flaps are decorated with a line of skin thongs, each ending in a soft red hair filled metal cone.
A notable feature of the moccasins is that the heal seams, at the sole, begin with two split or pointed tabs.
Dimensions Length: 24 centimetres Height: 10 centimetres Width: 9 centimetres
Condition Very poor. The quillwork is flaking, missing from the instep and heel seams in part, very badly split at the heel seams, crudely repaired, very worn on the soles, and much distorted, perhaps as a result of having been worn by someone with too big feet in fancy-dress occupations.
Curator's comments From the painter Benjamin West's studio.
Exhibition History 1992 14 Sep-31 Oct, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe, a Didactic Display 1993-95, London, Museum of Mankind, 'Treasures of the Americas' 1999 25 Jun-2011 2 Mar, BM Room 26; Gallery of North America, Case: "The Northeastern Woodlands"
Copy and photos from The British Museum.
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