An Early and Rare Cree Doll Cradle

composed of wood, wool cloth, porcupine quills, glass beads, metal cones, dyed horsehair, thread, sinew, pigment.

Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, London, Tribal Art, October 2001, lot 1

 

John W. Painter Collection, Cincinnati, OH

The Cincinnati Art Museum, "A Window on the Past," October 18, 2002 - March 30, 2003

John W. Painter, A Window on the Past, "Cincinnati Art Museum, 2002, text and illus. pp. 64-65, no. 59: "The head protector and a strip across the back have woven quillwork panels. On three sides of the front bottom, a plaited quill design is sewn to the cloth cover, and many pony bead and quill-wrapped hangs are present. The back top center of the wood board has two triangular cutouts; Cath Oberholtzer, an expert on Cree material with the Canadian Museum in Ontario, believes that this portion of the cradle is in an iconic Thunderbird form. The British Museum has a Cree doll cradle of this general type, acquired about 1740 by John Potts while he was working for the Hudson's Bay Company. It is now quite plain and has lost most of its former decoration, but also has the two triangular cutouts on the back top center of the wood board.

 

Only a few Cree doll cradles can be dated to around 1800. It is therefore appropriate to compare other types of related Indian artifacts from the same area and time: (1) two female dolls in the Horniman Museum, London; see American Indian Art Magazine (Winter 1984), cover of anniversary issue, circa 1790; (2) two female dolls sold at Christie's, South Kensington, Tribal Art, April 4, 1989, Lot 280, circa 1800. The smaller doll is in a cradle with some design elements that are similar to those shown here; (3) a male and a female doll, plus a doll cradle, in the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art, Bellevue, Washington. That cradle, like the present specimen, has beaded hangs on the front and back, but no quilling. The Whyel cradle is decorated with a cutout on the top center of the back, which resembles an iconic Thunderbird with beaded wing feathers; (4) a Parklands Cree type shirt, early eighteenth century, located in the Kungl. Livrustkammeren, Stockholm; see Glenbow Museum, The Spirit Sings (1988) 108, no. 98..."

Very good condition.
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