.jpg)
- DIMENSIONS:
- Length (max) 2.35 m; Width (max) 1.6 m
- DESCRIPTION:
- Four tanned
hides of the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus, also called
Dama virginiana) are each cut straight on two adjacent sides and are
sewn together with sinew thread to form a larger, almost rectangular
flat piece of leather. Its border is not cut and preserves some of the
holes made in stretching the hides preparatory to tanning them. For
some reason, but perhaps because of the shape of the hides, the vertical
seam does not extend the full length of the skin, but ends at some distance
from both the bottom and, more noticeably, the top. The shell bead-work
originally consisted of a central standing human figure flanked by two
upright quadrupeds and surrounded by thirty-four discs. The design was
made by spot-stitching shells of Marginella roscida with sinew thread
having a slight S-twist.
.jpg) The
shells used for the animals and discs are ground at one side to form
beads ready for appliqué; those used for the central figure are
ground at both sides, reducing them to about half their original size.
Some shells have been lost, especially on the lower part of the mantle:
here two discs are completely missing and a third almost completely
gone, while several more have lost about a third of their shells. This
is probably largely the result of post-collection vandalism, resulting
from the greater accessibility of the lower part when the piece was
hung up on display. The human figure (of unspecified sex) is shown in
the frontal outline with indications of ears, square shoulders, arms
more or less parallel to the body and ending in five-digit hands; the
feet are shown in outward profile with five toes each, the thumbs and
big toes both being clearly differentiated from the rest. The two animals
resemble one another in terms of their overall outline, but are clearly
distinguished by their tails and paws. The left-hand animal has a long
tail and round paws with five digits, while the tail of the right-hand
animal is shorter, and the legs taper to a cloven hoof. The discs are
made up of counter-clockwise outward spirals. While in some circles
the spiral ends are easily discernable, in others a concentric line
encloses the spiral.
- COMMENTARY:
- 'Powhatan's
Mantle' is the only surviving example of five 'match-coats' and habits
supposedly made by the Algonquian Indians of Virginia listed in the
1656 catalogue of the Tradescant collection. The colono-Indian word
'match-coat', which appears in other catalogue entries, was derived
from a Virginian Algonquian word which John Smith spells 'matchcores'
and glosses 'skins, or garments'. Although 'Powhatan's Mantle' is not
referred to as a 'match-coat', one would assume that, if it really were
a garment, it would also fall into that very broad category. On the
other hand, there is good reason to question the use of this shell-decorated
skin as a garment, as well as its attribution to the wardrobe of the
native ruler over much of tidewater Virginia at the time of the first
English settlement in this area. Even if 'Powhatan's Mantle' was shaped
like a garment, it need not necessarily have been worn as one; but in
fact its vertically orientated design precludes consideration as such.
A feature which may have misled past observers into thinking of it as
a garment is the incomplete seam between the upper left and right hides,
which superficially resembles a V-neck. To wear a skin this way would,
however, be unique in native North America.
- Museum Id. No:
- 1656
p. 47: Pohatan, King of Virginia's habit all embroidered with
shells, or Roanoke
1685 B no. 205: Basilica
Pohatan Regis virginiani vestis, duabus cervorum cutibus consuta,
et nummis indicis vulgo Coris dictis splendide exornata
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