A PUEBLO PAINTED BUFFALO HIDE SHIELD. . c. 1800. ...

Description

A PUEBLO PAINTED BUFFALO HIDE SHIELD

c. 1800

consisting of two layers of rawhide stitched together, painted on the front with two warriors, each wearing a feather headdress and holding a bow, painted in black, white, red, green and yellow pigments, hide straps attached

The visionary and/or protective designs could be renewed from time to time with fresh paint. This appears to be one such example, an ancient buffalo hide shield likely repainted sometime in the 19th century.

This lot is accompanied by a copy of a letter stating provenance from Charles E. Minton, Commissioner on Southwest Indian Affairs in the early 1960s, who gifted it to Dr. Alfonso Ortiz upon completion of his doctoral dissertation, published as The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being, and Becoming in a Pueblo Society. Minton acquired this lot at the Zuni Pueblo in the late 1890s from a man whose family name is recorded as Kyaawana. Through the Ortiz family by descent.

Diameter: 22 inches



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