Included in this lot is a beaded zippered leather key wallet that shows traditional Flathead Indian geometric designs and motifs, incorporating glass trade petit and seed beads in semi-transparent cobalt, periwinkel, light blue, Cheyenne pink, semi-transparent rose, and orange, with a beaded bone hairpipe leather thong drop fringe in larger opaque orange and black trade beads. The first European explorers and colonists gave Native Americans glass and ceramic beads as gifts and used beads for trade with them. Native Americans had made bone, shell, and stone beads long before the Europeans arrived in North America, and continued to do so. The use of the “seed bead” by Native Americans beginning in the 1800s was the result of hundreds of years of European glass technology intersecting with the westward expansion of the United States across the continent.
This modern key wallet is in good overall condition, no bead loss noted, leather feels supple, measures 2.5"W x 3.75"L