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1850-60s Shoshone Indian Dress

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:4,000.00 USD Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
1850-60s Shoshone Indian Dress
56” x 42” lane beading along shoulders and across the front in black, white, trader blue and pink with a row of beadwork, fringe and squares of trade cloth at the base on native tanned hide. Mounted and framed in plexiglas. Condition appears good but has not been examined outside of the frame PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Sun Valley, Idaho. Acquired in late 1991 from Ramona Morris, American Indian Art, Woodside, CA. Ms. Morris was past-president of ATADA and currently operates her fine antique Native American and tribal art gallery from Delaplane, VA. Accompanying 1991 Letter from Ms. Morris states as follows: …this is a very early example – c 1850s – from your region (Idaho), and is possibly Shoshone. The beading is sparse as is typical for early pieces, and in real bead size – smaller than pony beads and larger than the fine beads of the 1870s. The black, white and blue are also typical of early pieces, with a nice accent of dusty pink on the hem. There are inserts of dark blue trade cloth on the side scallops of the hem. The yoke is softly painted in yellow ocher with a few touches of red ocher. The rest of the dress is a creamy color. There are trimmed deer tail additions to the yoke front and back. Both sides of the dress are identical. I know the history of the dress for the past 60 years or so. It has been in two collections in the Bay Area, most recently that of the late Charles Miles, who wrote the book on North American Indian and Eskimo artifacts. It was in a flood in Berkeley in the 1930s and was rescued and cleaned. The leather is quite soft, although the fringes are a bit stiff. It is far more rare than the Sioux type dress than the fully beaded yoke, which is a generation or two later.