Prairie/Plains Carved Elk Horn Quirt

Description:

Prairie/Plains Carved Elk Horn Quirt, c. mid-19th century, with braided buffalo hide lash, the cloth wrist strap with red trade cloth overlay and remnant multicolored seed bead decoration, the quirt with deep incised abstract feather devices and horse heads on one side, and feather and four-point cross on the reverse, with triangles on one edge and near lash, rubbed in red and black pigments, traces of dark blue pigment on the surface, lg. of horn 11 1/2 in.

Provenance: Mordecai Thomas Bartram (1843-1904),collected between 1871 and 1873, then descended within the family.
Estimate $20,000-30,000

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