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Kiowa Roach Dancer Medicine Shield circa 1850

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Kiowa Roach Dancer Medicine Shield circa 1850
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This is an extraordinarily rare authentic Medicine Shield attributed to the Kiowa Native American People and dating to circa 1850-1880. The shield features a hand carved and bent wood frame with a stretched rawhide top having a rich deep polychrome pigment mineral painted design in red, yellow, green, and black. The center of center of the shield shows a scalp like braid which is an original very old Buffalo Hair drop having the round scalp like attachment and rich yellow to brown color being pigment mineral dyed. The front surface of the shield shows a sun like pictorial image radiating from the center braid with two snakes or river symbols on either side and picture window having four green and two yellow squares, possibly signifying a window to the soul. The rawhide stretched top is adhered to the wood frame with rawhide sewn straps and has an early trade canvas handle. The reverse of the shield has a rich dark green coloring with the wood frame being dark red, both pigment mineral polychrome painted. These scalp like adorned smaller or miniature shields were used by the Roached or Roach Dancers in the Kiowa ceremonies as shown in the attached illustration in the book “Hau, Kola” by Barbara A. Hail (The Plains Indian Collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology) figure 110, page 117. The illustration was done by Kiowa artist Tsa-Toke in the 1920’s-1930’s (being one of the five most prominent Kiowa artist of the time) and shows the dancer having a small shield with central drop which is also clearly animal fur, along with wearing the high hair roach headdress. The shield originally was adorned with raptor feathers, indicative of its early age and ceremonial importance, these feathers were removed for legal purposes. Provenance: The piece was purchased many years ago from the Historic and large private museum collection in Missouri, the same collection as the Northern Plains Wolf Scout Cap circa 1800-1850 that was sold for $4,165 at the North American Auction Co. 1/16/16 auction along with the same collection as the Kiowa Buffalo Hair Wrapped Coup Staff circa 1850 in the North American Auction Co. 1/14/2017 auction for $2,091 (both with premiums). The piece was consigned to this sale and purchased at the Missouri Museum deaccessioning sale by the Historical Native American Artifacts and Weapons private museum collection in Paris, France. The piece shows excellent condition for its age and measures 10.25”W x 14”L with drop. Truly one of the finest authentic examples of a Roach Dancer Shield over brought to public sale. (Originally purchased from the Missouri Museum collection for $4,500). A copy of the mentioned publication front cover and illustration page are attached in the images (if the images do not appear visit our company web site NorthAmericanAuctionCompany.com and view additional images with the associating catalog).