Northwest Coast Haida Cedar Box with Whale Stencil, Canada, Late 20th Century

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

Vintage Inuit 'two faced' stone carving - fine Modernist carving with spare decoration - signed PAUL (in Roman) on the base - Canada - mid 20th century. ...

ARTHUR JOHN SEWARD (Attributed) - Antique Arts & Crafts brass box with riveted construction and hinged lid - the lid extends beyond the edges of the box (typical of Seward's work) - ...

Vintage hand painted and gold gilded papier-mâché box with removeable lid - featuring three gilded lotus flowers to the lid and an intricate double band of decoration to the edge - u...

Vintage pine and cedar canoe scale model - featuring a detailed interior with two seats and fixed oars - the exterior base stained medium walnut, the cedar and pine left natural - un...

Vintage Conus seashell box with sterling silver mounts - side hinge - unidentified hallmarks to the interior (.925 silver) - Italy (Florence - likely) - m...

Northwest four figure totem from British Columbia. Old black paint and integral base. Great condition and just the right size. Northwest Coast art, consisting of totem poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large trees, mostly western red cedar...

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...

Late 20th century handmade jewelry box with malachite, gold threads and mohair velvet fabric. Made in Italy, 20th Century. Dimensions: 8"H x 13.5"W x...

Porcelain box, late 19th - early 20th century. Porcelain box from the end of the 19th century or beginning of the 20th century, gilded brass, very nice painted scene with gold dec...

Limoges pill box in the form of a top hat, French later 20th century. Gilded & silvered with gilt mounts. Marked: Limoges France, Porcelaine D'Art Du ...

Limoges pill box in the form of a top hat, French, later 20th century. Gilded & silvered. Marked: Limoges France, Peint main, Incrustation or fin (pai...