Great Lakes region, United States
19th century
Glass beads, cloth
Height 37 1/2" (95.3 cm) including tassels
Provenance: Collection of Sir John Everett Millais, London (1829 to 1896); Speak Bequest, UK; William Ohly (1883 to 1955), Berkeley Galleries, London and Abbey Museum, Hertfordshire, UK; thence by descent. Old handwritten label on back dated 1908.
This bandolier bag is worked in dense floral beadwork across the full length of the strap and pouch, with bells, leaves, and blossoms rendered in a naturalistic vocabulary characteristic of Great Lakes beadwork in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The composition is worked on a white beaded ground with a red cloth border framing the strap, and the overall effect is full and carefully organized. The handwritten label on the reverse, dated 1908, provides a fixed early date of documentation within the collection.
The bag descends through the same distinguished chain of British collections shared by other works in this group, passing from the Pre Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais through the Speak Bequest, the Berkeley Galleries, and the Abbey Museum in Hertfordshire. Provenance of this depth and institutional continuity is uncommon for Great Lakes textile material and places this bag within a small body of works with fully traceable nineteenth and twentieth century collecting histories. It is a well preserved and handsomely documented example of the form.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Great Lakes region, United States
19th century
Glass beads, cloth
Height 37 1/2" (95.3 cm) including tassels
Provenance: Collection of Sir John Everett Millais, London (1829 to 1896); Speak Bequest, UK; William Ohly (1883 to 1955), Berkeley Galleries, London and Abbey Museum, Hertfordshire, UK; thence by descent. Old handwritten label on back dated 1908.
This bandolier bag is worked in dense floral beadwork across the full length of the strap and pouch, with bells, leaves, and blossoms rendered in a naturalistic vocabulary characteristic of Great Lakes beadwork in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The composition is worked on a white beaded ground with a red cloth border framing the strap, and the overall effect is full and carefully organized. The handwritten label on the reverse, dated 1908, provides a fixed early date of documentation within the collection.
The bag descends through the same distinguished chain of British collections shared by other works in this group, passing from the Pre Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais through the Speak Bequest, the Berkeley Galleries, and the Abbey Museum in Hertfordshire. Provenance of this depth and institutional continuity is uncommon for Great Lakes textile material and places this bag within a small body of works with fully traceable nineteenth and twentieth century collecting histories. It is a well preserved and handsomely documented example of the form.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
