Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

I hope you have a wonderful New Year's day and that 2009 is happy and successful!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Eskimo Soapstone

Friday, a slug of Inuit soapstone sculptures walked in the door. Well, I guess they did not actually "walk"... more like lumbered...

Regardless, this has been an area of American Indian art that has been slowly growing on me. I used to not think much about these sculptures, but the more I see, the more intereresting they become. Carved in the round, the subjects vary from comical, to everyday arctic life scenes, to marine and avian wildlife. Even more interesting, the semingly "off balance" look of some carvings only supports the ablity of the artist to see design in a non-conventional shape. Even the older pieces have a contemporary but organic quality that I am really starting to enjoy.


By the way - these pictures are just a sampling... and I never claimed to be a photographer, as you are finding out...

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Closing in on 2009

I have to say, it has been an interesting, slightly volatile year. As with all years, there are the slopes, valleys, and catwalks that we ski through. Hopefully 2009 will bring, with the guidance of our new president, an upswing and stabilization in the economy.

But with all that said, art is art and will continue to be a bright spot in our lives. We have seen some pretty neat things this year - which I would like to share! (And I know - this is not all Indian stuff!)

William Louis Sonntag (American, 1822-1900)

Handel Lamp with Egyptian Ruins Shade #6004



1930 Packard 733 Club Sedan


Western Great Lakes Catlinite "Monster" Pipe Bowl and Stem,

ps. to view the complete records on these pieces, you will have to log into the website... sorry.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

A Geronimo Bow Case, Quiver, and Arrows Collected at the St. Louis World's Fair

ca 1904
thread-sewn using colors of red white-heart, white, dark blue, pink, greasy yellow, and light blue glass seed beads; edged with red wool; signed Geronimo in blue ink on hide, length of case 27"; PLUS sinew-backed bow with red painted detailing and sinew string, length 42"; AND six arrows with painted details and iron points, average length 26".



Accompanying the bow is a handwritten note stating provenance: Made by daughter 16 yrs old/ given 1904/ Geronimo archery contest used this bow/ given to Navajo/ traded to M Stark for turquoise; AND Land Stakes an autobiography of Herbert A. Stark.

Stark discusses in chapter 4 of Land Stakes, his time working as a guide at the Saint Louis World's Fair. There, he became acquainted with many famous personalities including Teddy Roosevelt. In one of his final paragraphs of this chapter, Stark describes a Navajo store that he visited, He was a chief of the Navajos and had a big store room packed with Indian goods... I showed him a gold ring with a turquoise setting... He was willing to swap even... (Stark 51).

And now take a close look at the top arrow tip -- it is bent...

Neat.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Discussion Group

Apparently, I cannot figure out how to place the html correctly in this blog - so, I'll just say it. That's a more direct approach anyway...

We started a general discussion group on our homepage. The group link is Everything Antique. The purpose of the group is to comment, share opinions, and for the general dissemination of knowledge. Please feel to chat and share your thoughts with a community of people who dig antiques too!

I hope you join and participate!

Friday, November 21, 2008

A Challenge Part III: Seminoles and Southern Plains

Again, Handbook of North American Indians vol. 14, pg 451...

The Seminoles maintained cordial if sometimes strained relations with the other removed Southeast tribes and cooperated with them in matters of mutual concern. Relations with the neighboring Creek proved problematic throughout the nineteenth century, but they resolved their differences through diplomacy, often including meditation and invention by United States officials. The Seminoles also maintained cordial relations with relocated Midwestern tribes, settled to the west of them after the Civil War. The Seminoles traded with all these groups, particularly with the Plains tribes. Prior to the Civil War, the Seminoles undertook annual summer trading expeditions westward to the Great Salt Plains (north-central Oklahoma), where they traded with the Southern Plains tribes.

This may help support the family story:

In the summer of 1877... enroute to Spokane, Washington and traveled through the Billings area. He acquired this belt by trading for it with an indian who had participated in the battle [Little Big Horn].

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Well, I have been unsuccessful at the moment in tracking down the family history on the sash - but still working on it. Ancestory.com is a great website for genealogy - as is FamilySearch.org, a site run by the Church of the Later Day Saints.

While I am wading through those records, you may enjoy this.



last quarter 19th century
depicting images from the Bear Mother myth; a male bear holds captive an upside-down deceased human, noted by the hollowed eyes; the female bear, opposite, wears a frog headpiece while and a shaman's head tops the sculpture. Curio label The Indian Bazaar/ 36 Johnson Street/ Victoria, B.C. pasted on base, length 10.25" x width 2.75" x height 6.25".

The Indian Bazaar was established in 1884 by John J. Hart (1833-1900). Located at 36 Johnson Street, Hart and his then partner Jacob Isaacs remained there until 1889 when they moved to 43 Johnson Street. Hart died in 1900 and the shop closed in 1908. The curio trade was in demand throughout the late 19th century and during this time, Hart supplied numerous ethnographic pieces for the Chicago Wold's Fair in 1893 as well as other prominent collectors and ethnologists including Franz Boas (Tobe 1999:3-18; Brown 2000: 120-121).

1999 Tobe, Sarah.
"J.J. Hart on the Map". The Scribe: The Journal of the Jewish Historical Society of B.C. Volume XIX, No.1: Vancouver.

1998 Brown, Steven C.
Native Visions: Evolution in Northwest Coast Art from the Eighteenth through the Twentieth Century. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

A Challenge - Solved?

In looking through volume 14 of the Handbook of North American Indians, I ran across two photographs. The first shows Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs wearing a similiar shoulder sash across his right shoulder (our left).




The second image I found is of a Creek finger-woven sash executed in very much the same style as the one we have. This sash was collected pre-1857.


The Seminoles were removed from Florida by the Federal government between 1838-1843 and relocated to Indian Territory. During the time of relocation, the Western Seminole separated into three settlements: the Apalachicolas and other "Friendly Seminoles" established themselves on the Little and Canadian rivers near the junction of the Creek nation; the main group of Seminole settled on the Deep Fork River in the Creek Nation; and a group who refused to merge with the Creek or live on Creek lands moved to the Cherokee Nation near Ft. Gibson.

The continued disagreement and hostility between the Seminoles and Creek ultimately lead to the creation of a separate Seminole territory located within the Creek nation and which also allowed a separate council, which would subsequently be subordinate to the Creek National Council.

cf. 2004 Sattler, Richard A. “Seminole in the West.” Handbook of North American
Indians 14: 450-464. Smithsonian Institute: Washington.

Now the next question -- what about the family's story? How does that fit in?

Thursday, October 30, 2008

A Challenge...

What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?

Well, this may not be the riddle of the Sphinx... but just as intriguing.

As the story goes, George Martin was a Quartermaster Sergeant in the US First Cavalry. The summer of 1877, the First Cavalry was en route to Spokane, Washington and while traveling through Billings, Martin acquired the belt from an Indian who had participated in the Battle of Little Big Horn.

This sash is finger-woven using red wool dyed with 100% lac.

White glass beads edge long fringe and decorate the central panel.
The total length is approximately 118".

Question: Who made this sash?
The family suggested it was Seminole.










New Beginnings

As you may have noticed, we have revamped our website. I think it is a great improvement! And with that, I thought, yet again, to give our blog another go. (Yes, you are right, it is about the 10th time we have done this.) This time however, with a slight change - this will be only about American Indian Art - or things happening that I think you may find interesting...

I would love for comments, so let me know your thoughts!

-DMF