Please note this item falls under the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act and is not eligible for international shipping. Native American, Alaska Native, & Native Hawaiian objects are only eligible to ship within the United States. If you live outside of the USA and you bid/win, your bid will be cancelled. Please bid accordingly.

Native American, Northern Plains, Crow (Apsaalooke), ca. 1850 to 1890 CE. A well-preserved steel knife with a rectangular wood and leather handle. The single-edged blade features shallow fullers on each side and a pointed tip that fits nicely into the wide sheath housing. The leather sheath is painted with red pigment, decorated with brass studs, lined with fringe tassels, and adorned with an intricately arranged beadwork panel - replete with abstract pyramidal and figural motifs - above. Size (knife): 10.7" L x 1.125" W (27.2 cm x 2.9 cm); (sheath): 9.375" L x 3.5" W (23.8 cm x 8.9 cm)

The Crow, or Apsaalooke, originally lived in the Great Lakes region in the Ohio Territory and in time moved westward to the Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming territories - including the Yellowstone River valley.

One of the most cherished forms of art practiced by Native Americans is beadwork. Prior to the European arrival and the advent of glass in the Americas, tribes traded bead materials such as shells or region-specific stones across hundreds of miles in order to create artwork. Indeed, glass beads were among the first trade goods that passed from Europeans to indigenous peoples in the Americas. By the 1840s, the refinement of glass bead manufacturing techniques in Venice and Bohemia, where these tiny glass "seed" beads were made, brought about their trading in the Americas.

Please note this item falls under the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act and is not eligible for international shipping. Native American, Alaska Native, & Native Hawaiian objects are only eligible to ship within the United States.

Provenance: private Don Phelps collection, owner Todos Santos Trading Post, Alamo, California, USA, before 2000

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

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#179771

Minor fraying and desiccation to leather sheath, with cracking and light fading to red pigment, otherwise intact and excellent. Great preservation to beadwork panel. Knife has wear to fullers, darkening to wood handle and leather wrap, otherwise intact and excellent. Great patina throughout. Blade is still sharp, so please handle with caution.