Inuit Art Eskimo Art Prints, Sculpture

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Item #

M021

Price:

~~C$1,450~~ C$870
(Sale Price)

Subject:

Porcupine Quill Basket

Dated:

1931 - Signed

Artist:

Dora

Community:

Ontario, Muskoka

Size: inches/cm

3" x 4" x 4"
7.6 cm x 10.2 cm x 10.2 cm

Description:

Would make an excellent pairing with both M020 and M022 as seen in the image below.
The art of decorating boxes and other garments with porcupine quills is unique to North America. Native Americans living in the Great Lakes area were doing quill work long before the first European contact in 1615. With the encouragement of French traders, a number of Great Lakes Indians -- principally Odawa and Chippewa -- began to place quill decorations on birch bark boxes of various designs. Today over 300 years later, quill work on birch bark boxes is a well known and highly prized Native American art form.
Making quill boxes is a time consuming and meticulous process. Quills are collected in January and February when their natural color is the strongest and they are not oily. Birch bark is cut from trees in May and June, when sap is abundant and removal of the first layer of bark will not harm the tree. Sweet grass is carefully cut in order to preserve the roots. This is done in June and July before insects have devoured the long broad leaves. It is rinsed in hot water and hung to dry.
One porcupine can provide thirty to forty thousand quills, ranging in length up to five inches. Quills can be plucked from porcupines killed for food or obtained from slow-moving live animals that are trapped by skillfully thrown blankets. Quills are washed and sorted according to length and thickness.
Quilling is not difficult, but demands care and patience. When softened in the mouth or soaked in water, quills become very pliable and can be flattened, bent, and twisted. A pliable quill is inserted into a hole pierced along a predetermined design line. A second hole is pierced within the design and the other end of the quill is inserted and pulled tight with tweezers. The quill is held snugly because the bark tends to expand slightly after the quill is inserted, shrinking the size of the hole. This process is repeated until the design is complete.

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