Above is a porcupine-quilled knife sheath inspired by an original example from the Farquharson Collection, now housed at the Toledo Museum of Art.
The story behind this piece begins with Alexander Farquharson, a young Scottish officer connected to the Farquharson family of Invercauld. During the French and Indian War, he served in North America with the British forces. Surviving documentation places him in the military world of Albany, Oswego, Lake Ontario, and Canada during the campaigns against New France. He later died in Havana in 1762 while still in British service.
What makes the collection remarkable is that Farquharson sent Indigenous-made objects back to Scotland, where they remained preserved with his family for more than 250 years. These pieces were not modern tourist souvenirs, but eighteenth-century objects collected during a moment of war, diplomacy, alliance-making, and exchange between British officers and Native nations.
Some time ago, I had the opportunity to study the collection firsthand during a research visit to the Toledo Museum of Art. Among the pieces that caught my attention was a porcupine-quilled knife sheath constructed with a birch bark slat as the foundation for the quillwork.
My reproduction follows that same construction method, with porcupine quills attached to a birch bark core. Recreating the sheath allowed me to better understand the materials, techniques, and artistic decisions used by the original Native maker. It also reminded me that these objects were not simply decorative or utilitarian, but expressions of cultural knowledge, identity, and technical mastery.
