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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;2manybooks, post: 11096238, member: 8267&quot;]I used the Maasai example just to show that ear ornaments can get quite large (responding to komo&#039;s comment). </p><p><br /></p><p>But I really can&#039;t be sure about the origin or date. The color and texture of the leather look like it could be Native American, as does the use of sinew thread (if that is accurate). African bead workers had greater access to native and imported cotton threads as well as other fibers. </p><p><br /></p><p>It looks like the beads are larger than typical seed beads, perhaps &quot;pony beads&quot; which is a type that appears earlier than the small seed beads in Native American work. Not much to go on in terms of design in the beadwork, and the limited colors. White and blues were favored colors from the earliest trade in glass beads. </p><p><br /></p><p>As an example, here is a detail of a decorated shirt strip in the British Museum, attributed to the Crow. The combination of traditional quillwork with pony beads appears in the early to mid 19th cen., as the trade in glass beads was being introduced -</p><p>[ATTACH=full]536491[/ATTACH]</p><p><a href="https://matotope.com/period-embroidery-beads-old-color-beads/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://matotope.com/period-embroidery-beads-old-color-beads/" rel="nofollow">https://matotope.com/period-embroidery-beads-old-color-beads/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Note the irregular shapes of the beads, and variations in color. I was hoping to find this same piece in the Museum&#039;s online catalog to see if they assigned a date, but did not see it. I was able to find another Crow shirt in the collection with a similar combination of quillwork and beads, which they tentatively date to the 1850s - </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]536492[/ATTACH]</p><p><a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1924-1009-1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1924-1009-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1924-1009-1</a></p><p><br /></p><p>This is just to suggest a possible time period for your piece based on the beads, not that it was necessarily made by the Crow.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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