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Catlinite is a soft red clay/slate, named after the famous American painter and recorder of Indian life, George Catlin (1796-1872). The main source of red Catlinite is a quarry at Pipestone, Minnesota (today a National Monument). The stone was traded widely throughout the Plains. Other types of pipestone, green to a black, were excavated elsewhere on the Plains; a great deal of it was not Catlinite. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceJonathan Holstein, Cazenovia, New York
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.107.
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. 117.
Culture
Iowa
Pipe Bowl
Date1800-1850
MediumCatlinite
DimensionsOverall: 2 3/4 × 1 1/4 × 3 × 4 1/2 in. (7 × 3.2 × 7.6 × 11.4 cm)
Object numberT0085
Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextThe pipe bowl has a raised, serrated and pierced comb rising from the shank while the bowl itself is in the form of an animal head, probably a raccoon with its long snout facing the smoker. The self-directed face suggests that the pipe bowl was used in meditation of a guardian spirit, although it could also have been a clan bundle object. A subdivision of the Ioway Pigeon clan was called Big Raccoon and may have been a separate clan long ago. In fact, raccoon effigy bowls were used on the pipes of the Buffalo and Pigeon clans.Catlinite is a soft red clay/slate, named after the famous American painter and recorder of Indian life, George Catlin (1796-1872). The main source of red Catlinite is a quarry at Pipestone, Minnesota (today a National Monument). The stone was traded widely throughout the Plains. Other types of pipestone, green to a black, were excavated elsewhere on the Plains; a great deal of it was not Catlinite. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceJonathan Holstein, Cazenovia, New York
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.107.
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. 117.
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