Dig It - 11/14/24
Hello Fellow Seekers, today we have another fascinating and bizarre tale. This is Moose Hair embroidery. The bizarre part is that the hairs used for this embroidery come from around the moose’s ass, I think I’ve got that right. Now at this point I could descend into banality, but I’m going to stay above the fray.
This European style of embroidery was introduced to the Huron, a Northern Iroquoian-speaking people of Canada, in the early 18th century by the Ursuline Nuns at boarding schools. The work done by these Huron ladies and girls in terms of dyeing the hairs and sewing them into these beautiful curvilinear floral designs is astounding. This is a card holder made for elite European women. The money raised by selling these objets d’art helped support missionary work as well as giving Native Americans access to cash. Cash was becoming more and more important as Natives had to function in an increasingly European colonial world. This card case dates from around 1820 to 1850. Amazing stuff. All the Best, Lonesome.
