American Indian Hand Painted Leather Box

Funky lady beg beautifully made of colourful cluster of beads, with motifs of flower and leafs, on old velvet background. This bag was not made to store any items as you see in the ...

exquisite middle Eastern Moorish Syrian inlay jewelry box. This box is intricately inlaid with Moorish motif designs which have been uniquely inlaid with bone, and fruitwood, four br...

Beautiful novelty bronze box with lovely theme of two love bird. Exquisite addition to any room.

unique containers hand crafted from Cypress wood artistic craftsmanship the lid comes off and each has acrylic container in . Originally came from...

Lovely sewing kit made of hand painted rattan, the top is decorated artistically with floral raffia work. Inside include plastic try and nice upholstered storage compartment. Excep...

Elegant pillow tightly hand embroidered of a vivid landscape scenery, beautiful colors. Fresh insert, quality cotton backing.

Antique Sioux (Native American/Plains Indian) Parfleche in a box form constructed of rawhide and intricately painted in an abstract design with hourglass and geometric motifs with natural pigments and red trade cloth. At the time this was created, the Sioux Indians were nomadic and are associated with vast areas of the Great Plains of the United States including present-day North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana. Authenticity is guaranteed. Box is in very good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Parfleches are rawhide containers which were fundamental to the Plains way of life. Functioning essentially as protective travelling suitcases, they enabled the nomadic tribes to effectively pursue buffalo herds and migrate between seasonal camps. So critical were they to a nomadic existence that over 40 tribes are known to have historically produced parfleches. Collectively, these tribes inhabited an area which encompassed the entirety of the Plains, as well as the parts of the Southwest, the Transmontane and Western Plateau regions. Parfleches were, out of necessity, robust and versatile objects. They were designed to carry and protect within them anything from medicinal bundles to seasonal clothing or food. In fact, it was because of the containers’ robusticity and variety that parfleches earned their name in the Anglo world. Derived from parer (to parry or turn aside) and fleche (arrow), the word parfleche was coined by 17th century French Canadian voyageurs and used to describe indigenous objects made from rawhide. Despite their common utilitarian function, parfleches served as one of the major mediums through which Plains Indian tribes could develop their long-standing tradition of painting. In fact, it is in large part due to the parfleche that tribal style emerged. Even though parfleche painting developed simultaneously with beading and weaving, painting as an artistic tradition held particular importance in tribal culture. Believed to have evolved from tattooing, it had always been used as a conduit through which tribal and individual identity could be expressed. As such, many tribeswomen were deeply committed, some even religiously, to decorating their parfleche either with incised or painted motifs that were significant to them and/or the tribe. For some tribes, such as the Cheyenne, the decorative processes which surrounded parfleche production were sacred. For others, it seems that their parfleche designs shared an interesting artistic dialogue with their beadwork, indicating a more casual exchange of design motifs. This particular relationship can be seen in Crow parfleche...

American Indian folk art Native American basket that is hand woven and coiled. It has been vegetable dyed and the basket lid is removable. The interior rein...

A hand painted papier mâché square box with stripes on the sides and flowers on the top. It is signed Kashmir. Circa 1960s.

Vintage Chippewa (also known as Ojibwe) birch bark lidded box with porcupine quill decoration and sweetgrass rims fastened with black thread - featuri...

This fine tightly woven Pima American Indian basket in unusual geometric pattern is in fine condition. The scale is so wonderful with a nice aged patina.

Vintage Rajasthani Indian vaulted dowry jewelry box, hand painted with Indian lovers enjoying each other, while beautiful court musicians accompany them ...