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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Origin of Iroquois silversmithing. A few additional notes from 

 the Archeologist's paper previously mentioned will be found of 

 immediate interest. 



Iroquois silversmithing and silver work are subjects worthy of the 

 attention of ethnologists. Silver brooches are among the most 

 sought for of the later day products of Iroquois art. Beauchamp, 

 Converse and Harrington have each interesting accounts of the 

 brooches but none of them has indicated how the Iroquois first ob- 

 tained their knowledge of silver working or have suggested how 

 the patterns of the most common forms were secured. Mrs Converse 

 wrote " I fail to find in illustrations of jewelry ornamentation of 

 either the French, English or Dutch, designs that have been act- 

 ually followed in the hammered coin brooch of the Iroquois." Har- 

 rington remarks in his excellent paper, the best yet issued on the 

 subject, " Before concluding, a few words concerning the art of 

 silversmithing among the Iroquois may not be out of place. Of 

 course such a discussion must necessarily be almost entirely theo- 

 retical. Taking the brooches first, it seems possible that we may 

 look for their ultimate origin in the ornaments of copper, mica 

 and other materials, thought to have been sewed or tied upon gar- 

 ments as ornaments by many tribes of the precolonial period. As 

 Beauchamp says, ' Apparently the brooch was the evolution from the 

 gorget for some (early) ornaments of this kind were tied on, not 

 buckled.' He mentions and figures such a crude broochlike orna- 

 ment of copper found on an Onondaga site of 1677. It is difficult 

 to surmise how the buckle tongue fastening originated, or if bor- 

 rowed whence it came. Perhaps the idea was in some way derived 

 from the old-fashioned shoe or belt buckle of the colonists. Exam- 

 ining the patterns, the Masonic type speaks for itself, as being 

 clearly of European origin ; but other forms are not so easily traced. 

 The heart type surmounted by an apparent crown looks suspic- 

 iously European also ; but we can not prove that the heart, which 

 occurs so often in all kinds of Iroquois carving and bead work, is 

 not a pattern native to the people. The crown-shaped ornament 

 above possibly represents a feathered headdress, or sometimes an 

 owl's head. . . '' 



The Archeologist became interested in Indian silver ornaments 

 in his early boyhood when he associated with other Seneca boys 

 on the reservation. His mother, Mrs Frederick E. Parker, was 

 fortunate enough to secure a large collection of the silver brooches, 

 known to the Indians as enius'-kd, which was exhibited at the Buf- 

 falo International Exposition in 1888. Many of the rarer forms 

 from this collection with two of the Governor Blacksnake wampum 

 belts were given later to Mrs H. M. Converse and are now in the 

 New York State Museum. Subsequently the Archeologist collected 

 a large number of brooches which he added to the above mentioned 



