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Dress and belt with awl case

ca. 1870
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 746
Plateau cultures thrived in the hilly steppe region between the Cascades in Washington and Oregon and the Rockies in Idaho and Montana. Garments of superior craftsmanship incorporating trade goods, such as this example, expressed personal identity and a family’s high status. The woman who made this two-hide dress lavishly covered the torso and sleeves with black-and-white beadwork, which she framed with fringes embellished with glass beads, cowry shells, bone, and two highly prized elk canines. The dress is accompanied by its own belt and awl case: awls were among the tools that women used in the preparation of animal skins.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Dress and belt with awl case
  • Date: ca. 1870
  • Geography: Possibly made in Oregon, United States; Possibly made in Washington, United States
  • Culture: Wasco, Native American
  • Medium: Dress: tanned leather, glass beads, shell, bone, elk teeth, and brass thimbles
    belt: commercial leather, glass beads, and metal studs
    awl case: tanned leather, and glass beads
  • Dimensions: 52 × 46 in. (132.1 × 116.8 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of Native American Art, Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.456.1a, b
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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Bowl, Bighorn sheep horn and nails, Wasco or Wishram, Native American
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Bowl
Wasco or Wishram, Native American
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Shaman's Belt (Gerangi), Animal teeth, glass beads, metal, conus shell, wood, nylon fishline, Ngadju or Ot Danum peoples
Shaman's Belt (Gerangi)
Ngadju or Ot Danum peoples
mid to late 20th century
Black-on-Black Jar, Maria Martínez Native American, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Clay and slip, San Ildefonso, Native American
Black-on-Black Jar
Maria Martínez
Julián Martínez
1919–20
Beaded Bag, Tanned leather, cordage, glass beads, brass beads, and commercial brass buttons, Wasco, Native American
Beaded Bag
Wasco, Native American
ca. 1860
Topi (beaded hat with forehead ornament), Dayak artist, Brass, fiber, cotton trade cloth, glass beads, animal teeth, Dayak people
Topi (beaded hat with forehead ornament)
Dayak artist
19th–early 20th century

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