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Saddle Bag

19th century
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
In Berber-speaking Tuareg society women decorate the leather saddlebags used to carry salt during migrations across the desert. They work the goatskin with impressed, stitched, or excised motifs, and attach tassels and fringe that shake with the camel’s movement for added visual impact. The colorful palette of black, green, reddish brown, and white comes from dyes made with indigo, pomegranate, sorghum, and minerals.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Saddle Bag
  • Date: 19th century
  • Geography: Algeria
  • Culture: Tuareg peoples
  • Medium: Leather, pigments
  • Dimensions: H. 68 7/8 × W. 23 5/8 × D. 6 5/16 in. (175 × 60 × 16 cm)
  • Classification: Leather
  • Credit Line: Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, Paris (71.1895.46.5)
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing