This is an exceptional circa 1870 Sioux quilled and beaded tobacco bag from an ex-museum collection out of Eastern Montana. The bag is comprised of Indian tanned hide with a unique “U” shape design with nice medium to large size and decent depth with a panel of Indian hide around the outer edge. The piece shows sinew sewing and trade thread sewing. The top and both sides of the outer border have a wonderful outline of Indian hide fringes. The bag shows classic Sioux geometric beadwork on both sides, as well on one side it shows horizontal bands of porcupine quill quillwork in mineral pigment red. This design of a beaded border with horizontal red quillwork has been documented on several Indian Wars era example such as the Sioux Tobacco Bag sold by Freeman’s in June 2022 for over $10,000, the Lakota Sioux bag sold by Bonhams in August 2023 for over $6,000 and the Sioux Tipi Bag sold by NAAC in January 2024 for over $4,000 (all shown w/ bp). There is a fancy beaded edge around the top and the one side shows a vertical banded beadwork design with elongated diamond pattern with zig-zag border having tab spots. The beadwork is all 1800’s examples of glass trade seed beads including colors of greasy yellow, red white heart, cobalt, greasy green and chalk white. Provenance: From an ex-museum private collection of fine Native American antiquities of Eastern Montana. The bag exhibits some hide loss at the center of the quillwork side, some slight quill loss, very little bead loss and some loss to the fringes. Stiffened hide but not brittle. Measures overall 10.5-inches long by 7-inches wide by 2.25-inches deep.