North American Auction Company
Live Auction

Threads of the West: Native Beadwork, Navajo Textiles, Navajo Jewelry & Western Art

Sat, Jan 24, 2026 11:00AM EST
  2026-01-24 11:00:00 2026-01-24 11:00:00 America/New_York North American Auction Company North American Auction Company : Threads of the West: Native Beadwork, Navajo Textiles, Navajo Jewelry & Western Art https://live.naabid.com/auctions/north-american-auction/threads-of-the-west-native-beadwork-navajo-textiles-navajo-jewelry-western-art-22140
Join North American Auction Company on January 24th for Threads of the West: Native Beadwork, Navajo Textiles, Navajo Jewelry & Western Art Auction. This is a wonderful collection of Western History, Native American Beadwork and Weapons along with fine Navajo Jewelry, Americana and more. Visit Live.Naabid.com for more details or call 800-686-4216.
North American Auction Company tucker@naabid.com
Lot 88

19th-C. Blackfeet Piegan Dag Knife & Sheath ex-Mus

Estimate: $6,000 - $9,000
Starting Bid
$500

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$50 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$25,000 $2,500
$100,000 $5,000

This is a fabulous, large dag knife sheath and dag knife from the Blackfeet Piegan of Northern Montana of the 19th-century from an ex-museum collection. The sheath exhibits Indian tanned hide over thick buffalo / bison parfleche rawhide that is sinew sewn and shows a classic Blackfeet / Blackfoot dag knife pattern with tapering triangle sheath with diamond like lower tab. The front is covered in glass trade seed beads showing a classic Blackfeet dag knife beadwork pattern. The beads are sinew sewn. This is paired with a mid-19th-century dag knife which features a forged iron blade in dag form showing a double edge blade with thicker center median secured to a solid hardwood one piece grip with poured lead pewter. The dag knife is covered in panels of solid copper plaque / placards which are hand etched showing a eight-point star and roach spreader like designs accompanied by old solid brass square shank trade tacks across both sides and the outside edge. The blade has heavy coloring, copper has dark tarnish as do the tacks and the wood a nice worn patina. The sheath shows a river like section in the center with fancy beaded outer edge. The sheath shows a yellow ocher / ochre coloring on the hide with some wear on the backside. There is some slight bead loss and some preserved work. Provenance: From an ex-private museum collection in Montana. The sheath and beaver back style of dag are very similar to other documented examples such as the Blackfeet Crow’s Foot (1836-1890) Dag Knife and Beaded Sheath (with the same pattern) which sold in 2013 at Cowan’s for $$65,000 and the sheath is incredibly similar to the Large Blackfoot Beaded Buffalo Hide sheath and double-edge dag knife circa 1870 from the C.P. Carberry Glacier Park collection and sold in 2016 at Skinners-Bonhams for $70,725. Sheath and knife together measures 21-inches long. Sheath by itself is 16 3/8-inches long by 4-inches wide. Dag knife is 14.5-inches long by 2.5-inches wide.

All items will ship at our North American Auction Company in-house shipping department. Please allow up to 14-21 days after a complete invoice payment is made to package and ship your purchase. After you are notified of your winning bids from our company and your item invoice is paid in full our new shipping department will contact you. Make sure when signing up with our company that your preferred shipping information is up to date as this information will be used to estimate shipping cost. Once the items have been packaged our team will contact you for shipping payment. Shipping invoices and payment will be completely separately than the items invoice. Please notify the shipping department with any alternate request or instructions at mark@naabid.com or 800-686-4216 ext. 3. For a shipping quote please contact the same information above. PLEASE NOTE a shipping quote price can fluctuate in price. Auction company is not responsible for actual shipping cost being higher than quoted shipping cost. Thank you for trusting North American Auction Co. with your bids and shipping. As our shipping department is brand new please understand that delays can be expected.