Nova Scotia Museum
Mi'kmaq Portraits Collection

IMAGE CITATION


Date: 1791 ca

Subject:

Orignal Work:

Place: Possibly Tufts Cove, Dartmouth, N.S.

Source: Nova Scotia Museum, Halifax

Reference Number: P113/ 79.146/ N-8419


Image Use: Free for personal research and non-commercial educational use.

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IMAGE INFORMATION


This is the first known image of a woodsplint basket. The woman is using a chequer-weave (over one, under one); the vertical standards projecting from the top show that the basket is not yet complete. It appears to have a square base and, if she is following the traditional pattern, will have a circular rim. In front of the weaving woman is a circular lidded box made of birchbark rings wrapped with split spruce root, slipped over a plain birchbark liner. The lid top is decorated with a mosaic of porcupine quills, dyed different colours, with their ends inserted into the bark beneath. This little family group by Binney was also copied into various other works, by both local and foreign artists.

KEYWORDS


men; women; children; encampments; wigwams; animals; birds; moccasins, women's; jackets, women's; skirts; caps, women's; peaked caps; quillwork, porcupine; containers, birchbark; basketry, woodsplint, construction of; Tufts Cove; Dartmouth; Nova Scotia


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