Description
Important ceremonial pipe Sioux Sisseton / Santee, Eastern Dakota, Plains, USA About 1850 Wood and catlinite L. 77 cm Furnace : L. 12,5 cm - H. 8,5 cm Provenance : - Collection Yves Berger, France - Sale Millon & Associés, Art des Indiens d'Amérique du Nord Collection Yves Berger, 15 avril 2002, Paris, lot 13 - Private collection, acquired at the above sale The most sacred object in the Plains cultures was the pipe. If an elder wanted to adopt a young boy, he would make the gesture of wrapping the boy in his pipe. When presented to another nation, the pipe signified peace because one could not wage war against relatives. The owner of this object was promised a long life, prosperity and luck. Before going on an expedition, the warriors smoked the pipe. They put themselves under the protection of their fetish animal (here a bird, probably the loon carved on the handle of the pipe). These long pipes were sacred and carefully preserved. Smoking a mixture of tobacco and aromatic herbs created harmony with the unseen forces, the smoke symbolizing prayer, gift or request for help from the Great Spirit. "Before we speak of sacred things, we condition ourselves with offerings. One of us fills his pipe and hands it to the next who lights it and presents it to heaven and earth. We smoke together. Then at last we are all ready to talk." Mato-Kuwapi ("pursued by the Bears"), a Santee-Yanktoni (Sioux) warrior. This Sioux pipe (Oceti Sakowin Nation, formerly named Santee or Sisseton) is very similar to an example in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., inventory number 416140, acquired in 1869. These two calumets share the same iconographic elements: a finely twisted wooden handle, the representation of a bird's head clutching the handle, and a rectangular panel decorated with engraved and painted geometric motifs on which the catlinite stove is fixed. The name of this red stone derives from that of the painter George Catlin. This American artist was one of the first to celebrate and publicize the arts and cultures of the American Indians at the beginning of the 19th century. A true sculptural tour de force, this twisted pipe, dating from the heart of the 19th century, is a remarkable testimony to the ancient practices of the Plains cultures.
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Important ceremonial pipe Sioux Sisseton / Santee, Eastern Dakota, Plains, USA About 1850 Wood and catlinite L. 77 cm Furnace : L. 12,5 cm - H. 8,5 cm Provenance : - Collection Yves Berger, France - Sale Millon & Associés, Art des Indiens d'Amérique du Nord Collection Yves Berger, 15 avril 2002, Paris, lot 13 - Private collection, acquired at the above sale The most sacred object in the Plains cultures was the pipe. If an elder wanted to adopt a young boy, he would make the gesture of wrapping the boy in his pipe. When presented to another nation, the pipe signified peace because one could not wage war against relatives. The owner of this object was promised a long life, prosperity and luck. Before going on an expedition, the warriors smoked the pipe. They put themselves under the protection of their fetish animal (here a bird, probably the loon carved on the handle of the pipe). These long pipes were sacred and carefully preserved. Smoking a mixture of tobacco and aromatic herbs created harmony with the unseen forces, the smoke symbolizing prayer, gift or request for help from the Great Spirit. "Before we speak of sacred things, we condition ourselves with offerings. One of us fills his pipe and hands it to the next who lights it and presents it to heaven and earth. We smoke together. Then at last we are all ready to talk." Mato-Kuwapi ("pursued by the Bears"), a Santee-Yanktoni (Sioux) warrior. This Sioux pipe (Oceti Sakowin Nation, formerly named Santee or Sisseton) is very similar to an example in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., inventory number 416140, acquired in 1869. These two calumets share the same iconographic elements: a finely twisted wooden handle, the representation of a bird's head clutching the handle, and a rectangular panel decorated with engraved and painted geometric motifs on which the catlinite stove is fixed. The name of this red stone derives from that of the painter George Catlin. This American artist was one of the first to celebrate and publicize the arts and cultures of the American Indians at the beginning of the 19th century. A true sculptural tour de force, this twisted pipe, dating from the heart of the 19th century, is a remarkable testimony to the ancient practices of the Plains cultures.
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