AN ATHABASKAN COPPER KNIFE AND BEADED HIDE SHEATH. c. 1880... (Total: 2 Items)

Description

AN ATHABASKAN COPPER KNIFE AND BEADED HIDE SHEATH
c. 1880

the slender knife with flattened midrib and twin volute handle; the sheath, overlaid with a panel of red trade wool cloth and decorated with rows of beadwork in various colors, metal tip with stippled decoration

"Long knives with flaring, voluted handles were used for both hunting and fighting. They were originally made from copper obtained through the native trade system; later examples ... collected in the 1860s are made of trade steel. Lashed to wooden poles, they were used by especially daring hunters to kill bears," Fitzhugh, William W. and Aron Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, Washington D. C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988, p. 229.

Lengths: the knife, 14 inches; the sheath, 12 inches


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