Collection Focus
by Ann Pollard Rowe, Research Associate, Western Hemisphere Textiles
The Chilkat “blanket” is a ceremonial shoulder mantle worn by chiefs and other wealthy men and women of the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America. The mantles were worn or displayed on various ceremonial occasions, including the potlatch, which included speeches, feasting and dances and ended with the host’s presentation of the privileges he claimed—validated by gift-giving. Mantles were often given to distinguished guests, and were sometimes cut into strips for this purpose. The recipient would then sew the strips into smaller items such as aprons, leggings, tunics, or caps. This vest, with its cut curves and collar, follows a European example and its maker carefully matched the design across the front opening.
Designs derived from the male woodcarving style, which depicted animal crests, came into use in Chilkat weaving during the 1820s. The imagery was painted by men onto a wooden board for women (who typically wove) to copy using a tapestry technique with weft yarns turning back at the edges of each color area, but in weft twining rather than interlacing. Although very abstract, the design of this example may be a killer whale. In contrast, designs created by women for use on baskets and earlier mantles were primarily geometric.
The technical features of this cloth indicate it is a relatively early example of the style, dating perhaps to the second quarter of the 19th century. The use of green (made from a copper and urine bath overdyed with tree lichen yielding a yellow hue) rather than blue indicates the vest was made before the introduction of blue trade cloth in the mid-19th century. The yarns are all handspun mountain goat hair with yellow cedar bark fiber in the warp. The twining is finely done with up to 25 rows per centimeter and in the white relief forms it is worked around single warp yarns instead of on alternate pairs as in the rest of the work. Though cut and remade, the fine workmanship still shines through.
On view at The Textile Museum February 4, 2011 through January 8, 2012
Left: Vest made from a ceremonial mantle, Northwest Coast of North America, ca. 1825-1875. The Textile Museum 1963.53.1. Gift of Alan R. Sawyer. Right: Chief Anotklosh of the Taku Tribe, wearing a ceremonial mantle, Juneau, Alaska, ca. 1913. Courtesy of the Seattle Museum of History & Industry.