Pictorial Hide

This rare early hide featuring stylized bear paws is likely associated with the bear cult which was prevalent among Plains peoples during the 19th century

Provenance

Auction in Mason, Michigan
Richard Pohrt Collection, Flint, Michigan
Epic Fine arts Co/Masco Corp., Taylor, Michigan
Splendid Heritage Collection (Warnock Cat. No.WC8903002), Palo Alto, CA

Related Examples

Donald Ellis Gallery collection, New York, 2014, for a Pawnee robe displaying similarly spare imagery, in that robe, stylized horses

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Cat. No. 2130 - See: Ewers, John C. The Awesome Bear in Plains Indian Art, American Indian Art Magazine, Summer 1982 pg. 42, pl. 8.

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Cat. No. 2671 – See: Maurer, Evan, M. Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1992, pg. 121, pl. 25 (for a shield cover displaying similar imagery)

Field Museum of Natural History, Cat. No. 71832.2 – See: Ibid, pg 120, pl, 23, (for a shield cover collected by S. C. Simm on the Apsáalooke reservation in 1902)

Field Museum of Natural History, Cat. No. 62578 – See: Ewers, John C. The Awesome Bear in Plains Indian Art, American Indian Art Magazine, Summer 1982, pgs. 36-45, pl. 9 (for another shield cover collected by S. C. Simm on the Apsáalooke reservation in 1902)

Plains Indian Museum, Cody, WY – See: Ibid, pg. 44, pl. 10

Field Museum of Natural History – See: Bancroft-Hunt, Norman. The Indians of the Great Plains. London: Orbis Publishing Limited, 1981, pg. 82 (shield cover)

Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cat. No. 99-12-10/53004 – See: Maurer, Evan, M. Visions of the People: A Pictorial History of Plains Indian Life. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1992, pg. 121, pl. 26 (for a rawhide container collected in the mid 19th century associated with the Arapaho Bear Dreamers’ Society)