A sheath constructed out of buffalo rawhide. The liner is pained with red pigment and decorated with sinew-sewn seed beads along the outer perimeter and the upper hemisphere. The upper portion is backed on native tanned buffalo hide. The panel is beaded, consisting of two upside-down blue triangles trimmed in red which sit on a yellow background. The design is trimmed with white lanes and further accented with black and white pony beads. The lower hemisphere is beaded along the outer edge, with blue/red/navy bars on a white lane, along with hole punctures where brass tacks likely resided.

11” tall and 4” wide (sheath)

Ex Dennis Lessard, ND; ex Walter Banko, CANADA; ex H. Malcolm Grimmer, NM; to Peter Cleary, NM (Aug 2004- Feb 2021); to Norm Exton, WA (June 2021- May 2023); to Thomas Cleary, NM (May 2023); to private collection.

Published: Walter Banko, "Mandan, c. 1850" American Indian Art Magazine Vol 7. No. 1 (1981): 22; Thomas Cleary, BraveArt: The Emergence of Tribal Style in Plains Indian Art (Groton, MA: The Groton School, 2005), p. 25, 39; Thomas Cleary, "Knife Sheath and Knife" Summer 2021 (Santa Fe, NM: Thomas Cleary LLC, 2021), p. 4-5.

#50943