Pipe or Tobacco Bag (c. 1870): Art, History and Details

Pipe or Tobacco Bag (c. 1870) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The shape of this bag indicates it was made to hold tobacco and one of the pipes that played a paramount role in the lives of Plains nations. Smoking is a means of prayer—the smoke carries thanks and entreaties into the other-than-human realm—and pipes were lit to seek protection and guidance on new endeavors, during alliance and dispute negotiations, to mark life’s milestones, and in many other situations. By the late 1800s, when this example was made, such bags were a standard element of prestigious men’s formal dress regalia.

Object facts

• Title: Pipe or Tobacco Bag
• Date: c. 1870
• Culture: Native North America, Plains, Tsitsistas (Cheyenne)
• Type: Leather
• Technique: Native-tanned hide, yellow pigment, glass beads, red trade cloth, tin cones, sinew thread
• Dimensions: Overall: 71.1 x 12.7 cm (28 x 5 in.)
• Collection: T - Native North American
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1937.871

A detail from the museum

Glass and metal beads were imported from Europe.

Collection credit

Gift of Amelia Elizabeth White

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.