Case (Handkerchief holder)

Description

This silk-sided case has four birch bark top panels that fold into each other to keep delicate squares of cotton or linen cloth stored inside the pouch clean. The elegant embroidered decoration is particular to the Huron-Wendat people who dyed fine porcupine quills and created designs resembling the moose hair embroidery that originated with French colonial nuns in Quebec, Canada. Native artists continued this artistry and Huron-Wendat artists produced exquisite embroidery using both moose hair or porcupine quill for birchbark doll furniture, tea cozies, travel cases, and other items into the nineteenth century.