Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Pipe Bowl
Unrecorded Muscogee (Creek) (?) Artist Native American
Not on view
This pipe bowl is in the form of a crouching male clasping his hands against his chest. The figure tilts his head back and is adorned only by a metal gorget, a crescent-shaped element derived from European armor that here represents a diplomatic gift. A stem would have been inserted into the figure’s rear in order to smoke tobacco during political or ceremonial gatherings. New research on the similarity of the figure’s posture to archaeological examples and on the gorget detail has recently reattributed the figure to an unknown artist from the Southeast.