North American Auction Company
Live Auction

Native & Western: Fine Beadwork, Navajo Rugs & Cowboy Collection

Sat, Oct 10, 2026 11:00AM EDT
  2026-10-10 11:00:00 2026-10-10 11:00:00 America/New_York North American Auction Company North American Auction Company : Native & Western: Fine Beadwork, Navajo Rugs & Cowboy Collection https://live.naabid.com/auctions/north-american-auction/native-western-fine-beadwork-navajo-rugs-cowboy-collection-25189
Join North American Auction Company on October 10th for our Native & Western: Fine Beadwork, Navajo Rugs & Cowboy Collection Auction. The collection includes a fine early Native American Beadwork collection, early and historic Native American Weapons, fine Western Firearms, Western Art, Navajo Jewelry, Cowboy Parade Saddles and more. Visit Live.Naabid.com
North American Auction Company tucker@naabid.com
Lot 123

ca. 1870 Arapaho Beaded Bowcase & Quiver ex-Museum

Estimate: $17,500 - $27,500
Starting Bid
$2,500

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 truly historic and important circa 1870 Arapaho beaded buffalo hide bowcase and quiver collected in Colorado, deaccessioned and purchased directly from a Museum in Southern Oregon in the late 1990’s. The piece is comprised of Indian tanned buffalo bison hide that is completely sinew sewn with fine beadwork that is uniquely and rarely represented on both sides wrapping around the bowcase and quiver openings and end caps as well as on the bottoms of the shoulder strap. The set also shows amazing Indian tanned buffalo bison hide frilly long fringes throughout. The fine beadwork is truly striking showing an hour glass of two triangular intersecting patterns with cross between, matching on both sides of the quiver with matching intersecting triangle hour glass on the bowcase and crosses on the shoulder strap. The beadwork is all sinew sewn and show 1860-1870 period correct glass trade seed beads showing red white hearts, greasy yellow, cobalt and sky padre light blue. Provenance: Originally collected in Colorado. Deaccessioned and purchased directly from a Museum in southern Oregon in the late 1990’s; from a large Native American collection including many Indian Wars era bowcases, Navajo Classic Serapes and other important objects and is noted as being the one of if not the finest early Arapaho beadwork items they have ever owned or seen in any private or museum collection in their 40+ years of collecting. This is truly one of, if not the best bowcase and quiver set we have ever offered for sale, and definitely the best example on the public market showing fine condition. The case shows mostly supple hide with nice coloring and patina with little to no bead loss. Measures overall 51-inches high by 51-inches wide. Similar in quality, but a finer example to the 1860-1870 Cheyenne example from the Stephen Johnston, Bruce and Ilene Johnson Mystic Warriors example sold by our company NAAC in September 2024 for $16,640 and previously acquired for $35,000.

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