Tlingit Chilkat Robe / Blanket, Mountain Goat Wool & Cedar Bark, Northwest Coast, ca. 1850s, 49" x 66"
DESCRIPTION:
Few objects in Northwest Coast art carry the cultural and visual weight of a Chilkat robe. This monumental example, measuring 49 by 66 inches, was woven in the mid-nineteenth century from mountain goat wool and cedar bark in the classic Chilkat tradition.
Chilkat weaving is among the most technically demanding textile arts in the world. Weavers who were historically women, worked without a conventional loom, suspending warp threads from a header board and building the design entirely by hand, row by row. The result is a fabric of exceptional density and suppleness, capable of rendering the complex ovoid forms, U-forms, and split-U elements of Northwest Coast clan crest imagery with a precision more commonly associated with painting than weaving.
This robe presents the characteristic palette: cream ground with deep blue-green, yellow, and black. The central field features a symmetrical crest composition, bilateral across the vertical axis in the manner specific to Chilkat convention. Two side panels flank this composition, and a long twisted fringe finishes the piece, identifying its ceremonial function. Chilkat robes of this scale and period were worn over the shoulders at potlatches, memorials, and other high-status occasions; their display communicated lineage, wealth, and the right to represent specific ancestral figures.
The form is associated primarily with the Tlingit of Southeast Alaska, though Haida and Tsimshian weavers also produced the style. By the 1850s, demand from high-ranking patrons had made these objects among the most valued in the region.
Provenance: Private New England collection; Robert Pamplin, Portland, Oregon.
Dimensions: 49" x 66" Materials: Mountain goat wool, cedar bark Date: ca. 1850s Culture: Tlingit, Northwest Coast
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand
Tlingit Chilkat Robe / Blanket, Mountain Goat Wool & Cedar Bark, Northwest Coast, ca. 1850s, 49" x 66"
DESCRIPTION:
Few objects in Northwest Coast art carry the cultural and visual weight of a Chilkat robe. This monumental example, measuring 49 by 66 inches, was woven in the mid-nineteenth century from mountain goat wool and cedar bark in the classic Chilkat tradition.
Chilkat weaving is among the most technically demanding textile arts in the world. Weavers who were historically women, worked without a conventional loom, suspending warp threads from a header board and building the design entirely by hand, row by row. The result is a fabric of exceptional density and suppleness, capable of rendering the complex ovoid forms, U-forms, and split-U elements of Northwest Coast clan crest imagery with a precision more commonly associated with painting than weaving.
This robe presents the characteristic palette: cream ground with deep blue-green, yellow, and black. The central field features a symmetrical crest composition, bilateral across the vertical axis in the manner specific to Chilkat convention. Two side panels flank this composition, and a long twisted fringe finishes the piece, identifying its ceremonial function. Chilkat robes of this scale and period were worn over the shoulders at potlatches, memorials, and other high-status occasions; their display communicated lineage, wealth, and the right to represent specific ancestral figures.
The form is associated primarily with the Tlingit of Southeast Alaska, though Haida and Tsimshian weavers also produced the style. By the 1850s, demand from high-ranking patrons had made these objects among the most valued in the region.
Provenance: Private New England collection; Robert Pamplin, Portland, Oregon.
Dimensions: 49" x 66" Materials: Mountain goat wool, cedar bark Date: ca. 1850s Culture: Tlingit, Northwest Coast
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand
