Columbia Plateau
Circa 1900
Glass beads on hide with fringe
Length 15½ in. (39.4 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Boston, MA
Beaded gauntlets were produced across the Columbia Plateau as prestige objects worn by riders and used in parade and ceremonial contexts, with fully beaded cuffs displaying figurative or floral imagery against solid color grounds. This pair depicts a longhorn cattle subject, rendered in red, white, and dark blue on a turquoise blue ground with a red beaded border at the top edge, a composition that is striking for its choice of a post contact domestic animal rather than the elk, deer, or floral subjects more typical of Plateau beadwork. The longhorn motif reflects the integration of ranching culture into Plateau life by the turn of the twentieth century, when cattle had become central to reservation economies throughout the region.
The beadwork is executed in lane stitch across the full cuff surface, with the cattle rendered in solid color fields and confident outline work consistent with Plateau beading technique of the period. Gauntlets with figurative animal subjects are less common than floral examples and attract sustained collector interest for their specificity and visual directness. From a private collection in Boston, Massachusetts.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Columbia Plateau
Circa 1900
Glass beads on hide with fringe
Length 15½ in. (39.4 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Boston, MA
Beaded gauntlets were produced across the Columbia Plateau as prestige objects worn by riders and used in parade and ceremonial contexts, with fully beaded cuffs displaying figurative or floral imagery against solid color grounds. This pair depicts a longhorn cattle subject, rendered in red, white, and dark blue on a turquoise blue ground with a red beaded border at the top edge, a composition that is striking for its choice of a post contact domestic animal rather than the elk, deer, or floral subjects more typical of Plateau beadwork. The longhorn motif reflects the integration of ranching culture into Plateau life by the turn of the twentieth century, when cattle had become central to reservation economies throughout the region.
The beadwork is executed in lane stitch across the full cuff surface, with the cattle rendered in solid color fields and confident outline work consistent with Plateau beading technique of the period. Gauntlets with figurative animal subjects are less common than floral examples and attract sustained collector interest for their specificity and visual directness. From a private collection in Boston, Massachusetts.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
