Dance Apron

Datec. 1875

MediumDeer hide, yellow bear grass, pine nuts, olivella shells, limpet shell, two cobalt blue Russian trade beads, woodwardia fern, alder bark dye, cord

DimensionsOverall: 10 × 16 in. (25.4 × 40.6 cm)

Object numberT0136

Credit LineLoan from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust

Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC

Label TextYurok, Hupa, and Karuk girls and young women danced in two-piece ceremonial buckskin skirts that did not quite meet in front. Decorated aprons of this kind were worn under the gap. This little buckskin apron is a diminutive duplicate of the adult form (c.f. Feder 1965, fig. 119). The long fringes are covered with strips of shiny yellow bear grass; some wrapped in bands, others covered completely. The grass is braided for six inches at the ends of the fringes. Pine nuts are fastened to the tips of the fringes and strung on some sections. These ceremonial skirts and aprons were greatly prized and passed down from mother to daughter. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceCharles Miles, Berkeley, California; Gary Spratt; Larry Wendt, Santa Fe, New Mexico
BibliographyMiles, Charles. Indian and Eskimo Artifacts of North America. New York: Bonanza Books, 1963, p.113, fig.4.2.

Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.260.

Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 276.

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