Upper Missouri River Quilled and Beaded Hide Man's Shirt, probably Mandan

of classic design, composed of finely tanned hides, seamed across the top with a transverse neck opening, the shoulders and sleeves overlaid with hide strips edged in tiny blue glass seed beads and decorated with finely plaited porcupine quillwork in red, blue and yellow, with stylized feather motifs, the triangular hide bibs on the front and back, trimmed in red and blue wool trade cloth in a split-panel design and sewn along the edges with additional blue seed beads; the arms with long cut hide fringed panels.

Acquired from Morning Star Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

The shirt is in good overall condition. The hide retains a mostly supple quality and shows evidence of typical wear including light soiling near the waistline. The quilled plaiting is delicate and there are areas of wear, heavy in some places, but is in good condition for its age. The bibs have evidence of moth damage, including a quarter-sized hole on one side (not illustrated in the catalogue).
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The extraordinarily beautiful strips on this shirt, decorated with yellow-dyed, plaited porcupine quillwork and light blue glass beadwork trim, are closely related to other shirts identified as being Upper Missouri River: see Penney, 1992, p. 147, pl. 77; Mauer 1992, p. 186, pl. 145; and, Pohrt, 1995, p. 23. For a discusssion of the Upper Missouri River style, see Penney 1992, pp.149-151: "Few Plains garments produced before 1800 have been preserved. Most of the earliest items date to the early decades of the nineteenth century, when the trade in furs and buffalo hides penetrated into the western frontier. The British Canadians were first by establishing a series of posts tied by trade routes to Lake Superior or Hudson’s Bay. The U.S. conduit into the Plains interior lay along the route explored by Lewis and Clark: up the Missouri River from St. Louis. Throughout the early nineteenth century, a host of fur traders, scientists, explorers, artists, and even a small number of tourists, made the trip by riverboat up the Missouri to visit the trading posts that had sprouted up along the river as far as Montana. The “forts” were located to trade successfully with “river Indians” like the Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan, who lived in earth-lodge villages along the banks of the Missouri, and with the more mobile Cree, Assiniboine, Lakota, Crow, Blackfeet, and Gros Ventre, whose hunting territories included stretches of the Missouri and its tributaries, such as Yellowstone. Some of these early visitors brought back with them the items of clothing found in museum collections today. Those who traded along the Missouri River entered into an age-old pattern of intertribal trade. The villages of earth-lodge Indians served as distribution points for goods brought from every direction and then traded outward again among a host of different trading partners. By this means, horses brought from Spanish America to the south by Ute, Kiowa, and Commanche traders have been distributed throughout the northern Plains tribes by the early 1700s, while guns procured from Canadian traders had been traded southward. The volume of trade in manufactured goods picked up appreciably with the introduction of riverboat transport early in the nineteenth century, but mobile “horse culture” tribes still tended to trade through their traditional river village partners, while these latter tribes worked hard to maintain their lucrative middleman status. Dressed hides and finished garments—shirts, leggings, and robes—had been exchanged between intertribal partners long before the introduction of the fur trade from the East. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that European American traders had little difficulty procuring them as well—when they were interested. Recognition of tribal styles among these early Plains garments is difficult for a number of reasons. One is the unreliable or incomplete collection history. Further, the exchange of these garments between different bands would undermine the usefulness of collection history even when available. The distribution of garments through trade would also tend to diffuse what might be considered telltale techniques of production or attributes of style. Finally, the introduction of trade materials, such as red stroud and glass “pony beads,” initiated a period of experimentation, as women explored different ways of incorporating these materials as ornament. Therefore, it is easier to speak of a more generalized “upper Missouri style” before 1850 than to define any more particular tribal approach to formal garment design. Nevertheless, certain clues on these garments tentatively suggest more specific origins. The Mandan attribution for the man’s shirt (pl. 77) stems from the elaborate plaited quillwork found on the arm and shoulder strips, each bordered by a single lane of blue pony beads."