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Sioux Beaded Buffalo Hide Moccasins, White Ground
Sioux, northern Plains
1880
Buffalo hide, glass beads, sinew
Length 9 3/4" (24.8 cm)
Provenance: Private East Coast collection
Beaded moccasins were among the most consistently produced forms of personal adornment across the Sioux nations, the fully beaded sole and vamp serving as both practical footwear and as expressions of the maker's decorative skill and cultural identity. The white ground with polychrome geometric beadwork across the vamp is consistent with Sioux moccasin production of the 1880s, the lane stitch and overlay stitch techniques producing a dense and durable surface suited to footwear subject to regular wear. Moccasins produced in the 1880s represent the period of most active Sioux beadwork production, before reservation-era economic pressures increasingly directed women's beadwork toward trade rather than personal and ceremonial use.
This pair is beaded across the vamp on buffalo hide with a white ground and polychrome geometric patterning in red, blue, and dark tones, sinew-sewn with the dark hide upper folded back at the ankle. The beaded surface is dense and consistent, and the pair retains its original form. Provenance traces to a private East Coast collection.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Sioux, northern Plains
1880
Buffalo hide, glass beads, sinew
Length 9 3/4" (24.8 cm)
Provenance: Private East Coast collection
Beaded moccasins were among the most consistently produced forms of personal adornment across the Sioux nations, the fully beaded sole and vamp serving as both practical footwear and as expressions of the maker's decorative skill and cultural identity. The white ground with polychrome geometric beadwork across the vamp is consistent with Sioux moccasin production of the 1880s, the lane stitch and overlay stitch techniques producing a dense and durable surface suited to footwear subject to regular wear. Moccasins produced in the 1880s represent the period of most active Sioux beadwork production, before reservation-era economic pressures increasingly directed women's beadwork toward trade rather than personal and ceremonial use.
This pair is beaded across the vamp on buffalo hide with a white ground and polychrome geometric patterning in red, blue, and dark tones, sinew-sewn with the dark hide upper folded back at the ankle. The beaded surface is dense and consistent, and the pair retains its original form. Provenance traces to a private East Coast collection.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.