Lot 61
Unidentified Mi'kmaq Artist
Lot 61 Details
Unidentified Mi'kmaq Artist
EBONIZED AND GILT PARLOUR CHAIR WITH QUILLED SEAT, SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY
porcupine quills, birchbark, wood, guilding, stain, iron nails, brass tacks
old label to underside inscribed "Isaac Gallery / #80"
34.5 x 16 x 15 in — 87.6 x 40.6 x 38.1 cm
Estimate $4,000-$5,000
Additional Images
Provenance:
Innuit Gallery (Avrom Isaacs), Toronto, ON
Private Collection, USA
George Brown, Toronto, ON
Private Collection, Ontario
Note:
From the time of the earliest written accounts of the Mi’kmaq, their exceptional quillwork was noted.[1] Made from perishable organic material, the earliest known Mi’kmaq use of quillwork is unknown, but by the turn of the 19th century it was a well-developed artform.
Mi’kmaq quillwork, most closely associated with boxes, was also used to embellish a wide range of less common objects including European and Euro-American made furniture. The present chair is an exceptionally fine early example, whose delicate architecture is a fitting compliment to the refined and delicate Mi’kmaq quillwork embellishing the seat. The body of the chair appears to be manufactured by the same firm as a closely related example held in the Royal Ontario Museum, ROM 978.123. Both the present chair and the example at the ROM have retained the majority of the delicate quillwork woven in their birch bark seats, a testament to the surprising durability of the materials.
[1] Ruth Holmes Whitehead, Micmac Quillwork: Micmac Indian Techniques of Porcupine Quill Decoration: 1600-1950 (Halifax: The Nova Scotia Museum, 1982), 5.