Rare and Important, this lot offers a truly stunning, circa 1875, Kiowa-Comanche Warrior Society Shirt. This is a large war shirt that measures 26 inches across the shoulders by 29 inches from top to bottom. The piece is comprised of Indian brain-tanned hide with hand cut frilly fringes. In typical Southwestern fashion, the shirt is “hole cut” with hundreds of hand cut holes. This documented design is commonly seen in Kiowa, Comanche and Apache saddle bags and dance leggings with “hole cut” designs. There are old blue pony trader blue and white beaded designs on both of the front shoulder areas and a large porcupine quill quillwork horsetail hair drop tied onto the front of the shirt, in place of the typical bib. This specific type of war shirt according to Curtis, Reinhardt, Van Epps, et al, was worn and used by the Kiowa-Comanche “warrior society” members, an elite group of chosen warriors used for their skill. Few are known to exist. There is a similar example in the Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian in New York which has three quilled hair drops attached. The shirts neck rim has old trade muslin cloth with beads. Half of the shirt vertically is covered in old red ocher and the other half yellow ocher mineral pigment dyes. Provenance: From the ex-Ted Levy collection, Santa Rosa California. This is truly a very unusual and rare example. The cut outs or “hole cut” designs have also been referred to from collectors as incised or punch hole with a few examples being seen such as the Blackfeet and Apache example previously sold by our company.*