19th Century Carved and Paint Decorated Canoe

Early 19th century American table in fabulous early blue paint. Featuring a pair of bulbous urn supports set on a stretcher base with scroll carved feet. The color has a Swedish Gu...

Watercolor and ink on laid cut paper featuring a solider and his love. With cut out lettering at the top reading "Valentine The (23 or 25) of December 1816" and at the bottom "When T...

Folk art patriotic shield painting of John Adams, dating to around 1876 and of a large size measuring 41" x 34.5". It is an oil on canvas laid down to boards. There is writing on the back of the boards, but I cannot make out what it says. There is another similar piece to this that features another signer of the constitution in the Smithsonian collection. This piece came from a collection in Portsmouth...

Frost pattern design from Maine, late 19th century. Museum mounted and ready to hang.

Late 19th century trumpeting arch angel painted sheet iron weathervane on custom metal stand. Presents well, nice form.

Finely painted with traditional geometric designs on both sides of one end, and subtle carved and incised flowing designs on both sides of the other end and adjoining shaft of the pa...

19th century hand-carved bark canoe bailer from Minnesota. Fur trade era. Period: 19th Century Origin: Minnnesota size: 9" x 6" x 5" Family Owned & Oper...

This wonderful original old surface plaque has a great old patina and a hand-carved and painted Indian chief. The Indian is in full original clothes with the feathers in his head. Wi...

This fantastic rarity is in all original painted surface with the original handmade drum stick attached. The top of the drum has a painted eagle and the base has a coat of worn origi...

19th Century Hopi carved Kachina doll. Circa 1900: cottonwood with earthen pigments, 7 3/8 in. H., with a stand. Collection inventory number on back of skirt.

"Keeper of the Horses" genuine 19th century Northern Plains pictorial painted robe with over 50 horses, pictorial story telling of horse raids painted on Dapple Gray brain tanned Ind...

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...