Native American, Northern New Mexico, Taos region, Comanche people, ca. 1880 to 1910 CE. A fabulous hand-sewn men's reenactment outfit consisting of a coat and pants sewn from dark tan cloth and embellished with navy felt and chocolate brown horse hair fringe. First, the coat is beautifully decorated with strips of navy felt along the cuffs of each sleeve, midway across the chest, arms, and back, exterior lapels of the coat, and at the top of the back. A lovely felt fringe adorns the coat's lower end as well as its top, while the mid-section of the arms and the upper section of the back boast fringe of brown horse hair. Six zinc discs are sewn to the navy felt of the lapels. Alternatively, the pants feature a long strip of navy felt that runs up the outside hem of each leg from which a lengthy horse hair fringe protrudes. Five brass buttons adorn the interior waist of the pants, while a petite metal buckle can be found at the fly, and two strips of fabric with an additional metal buckle are at the exterior of the waist, all for securing the trousers to their wearer. Size of coat: 32" L x 24" W across chest (81.3 cm x 61 cm); Size: 39.25" L x 20" W (99.7 cm x 50.8 cm)

This outfit and others like it were made and worn in Northern New Mexican villages such as Taos. Local men dressed like Comanche Indians would visit each house and receive small offerings, mostly food, to ward off possible depredations that were a very real possibility in the 18th and early 19th centuries by hostile Comanche Indians. These reenactments by locals were meant to commemorate those earlier times, though the practice eventually died out by the 1920s. This complete outfit is rare and historically depicts the Hispanic effort to survive in New Mexico's northern frontier.

Provenance: private Glorieta, New Mexico, USA collection

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#149323

Missing all coat buttons. Fly of pants also missing buttons. Losses to navy felt on lapels, cuffs, and fringe and some fraying to peripheries of felt. Otherwise, very nice.