Breastplate
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This breastplate, worn by a man as a personal ornament, is unique. A Kickapoo silversmith fashioned the hair pipes (long tubular beads) by cutting and cold-hammering German silver—an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel. Typically, Native artists used shell or bone pipe commercially manufactured by Euro-Americans for these ornaments. Popular during the later half of the 1800s, men’s breastplates often covered only the upper chest. Later, women created their own versions.
Artwork Details
- Title: Breastplate
- Date: ca. 1865
- Geography: United States, Kansas
- Culture: Kickapoo
- Medium: German silver, commercial and native-tanned leather, shell, wood, brass tacks, ring, and wire
- Dimensions: Length: 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm)
Width: 10 in. (25.4 cm) with appendages - Classification: Metal-Ornaments
- Credit Line: Collection of William Plitt
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing