Ojibwa Beaded Hide Pipe Bag, Floral Beadwork Panel

Ojibwa (Anishinaabe), Great Lakes

1880

Native hide, glass beads, sinew

Length 22 1/2" including fringe (57.2 cm)

Provenance: Wisconsin trade

Ojibwa pipe bags are distinguished from Plains examples by their characteristic floral beadwork, a tradition that developed among the Anishinaabe peoples of the Great Lakes region through sustained contact with French and later British missionaries and traders who introduced floral embroidery patterns that were adopted and transformed into a distinctly Ojibwa visual language. The naturalistic floral motifs rendered in glass beads on Ojibwa bags stand in clear contrast to the geometric vocabulary of Plains beadwork, reflecting the different cultural and geographic contexts in which each tradition developed. Bags of this type produced circa 1880 represent the mature period of Ojibwa floral beadwork before commercial production began to simplify the tradition.

This bag is constructed from native hide with a beaded lower panel featuring floral motifs in blue, red, and green on a white ground, with a black bead border framing the panel and hide fringe below. The upper body of smoked hide contrasts with the densely beaded lower panel, the combination consistent with Ojibwa pipe bag construction conventions of the period. Provenance traces to Wisconsin trade, consistent with the Great Lakes geographic origin of the piece.

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