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Beaver Crooked Knife
Native American, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet)
about 1814
Medium/Technique
Hardwood, steel, cotton cord, hide
Dimensions
Length: 24.1 cm (9 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds from the Frank B. Bemis Fund, the Peterson Family in honor of Ethan Lasser, the William Francis Warden Fund, and the Hilsinger Janson Fund for Native American Art
Accession Number2021.148
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsWarfare, hunting, fishing – Swords, daggers, knives
The crooked knife, known to the Cree and many other nations of the Eastern Woodlands as a mocotaugan, is a one-handed draw knife used by canoe builders, snowshoe makers, and basket weavers. Though the name for the object changes among the various groups, the tool is universal within Eastern Woodlands communities in its employment, principally by men, but occasionally by women in basket making. This knife is from the Northeastern woodlands specifically the Welastekwewiyik (Maliseet) people located in current day New Brunswick, Quebec, and Maine. Inscribed 1814, this knife is the earliest known example of a dated crooked knife. This example is also distinguished by its carved initials (DBM) and the elegantly carved heaver and barrel scroll that adorns the handle. Beavers are considered some of the natural world's greatest carvers, and beaver incisors were sometimes used a blades for crooked knifes, though this example is made of steel inserted into a slot in the handle. The presence of the carved beaver on this work along with the notched carvings on the scroll, mimicking the texture of a branch chewed by a beaver, emphasize this aspect of the form's history. The slot is wrapped over with wax linen thread or cord to both support the hand of the user (thereby creating a grip) and to ensure that the blade remained in place. The rich patina indicates this piece was actively used. Like many crooked knives, this example was probably made for trade. It is a utilitarian tool used to process materials and is not considered a sacred object or an object of cultural patrimony. The maker would use this tool to strip and split layers of bark, primarily from ash trees.
This artwork, will have a transformative impact on the MFA's Native American collections, and help to expand and diversify both the range of communities and the type of object we represent at the Museum. There is no work by the Maliseet people in the MFA collection and only one other crooked knife, made in the last quarter of the 19th century by another specified woodlands community.
This artwork, will have a transformative impact on the MFA's Native American collections, and help to expand and diversify both the range of communities and the type of object we represent at the Museum. There is no work by the Maliseet people in the MFA collection and only one other crooked knife, made in the last quarter of the 19th century by another specified woodlands community.
InscriptionsThe barrel of the larger scroll on the handle of the knife is incised with the initials “DBM” and the smaller scroll is inscribed with the date “1814.”
It is also inscribed with an old inventory number A8756 but now reads A8.
It is also inscribed with an old inventory number A8756 but now reads A8.
ProvenanceJune 13, 1983, sold by Hurst and Hurst (gallery), Cambridge, MA to Edmund Snow Carpenter (b. 1922 – d. 2011) and Adelaide de Menil Carpenter, New York (inventory no. A8356); February 22, 1996, sold by the Carpenters to Will Channing (dealer), Santa Fe, NM; sold by Channing to an anonymous private collection; by 2003, sold from this private collection to David Wheatcroft (dealer), Westborough, MA and Fred Giampietro (dealer), New Haven, CT (owned jointly); 2003, sold by Wheatcroft and Giampietro to Edward Jalbert, Ocean Ridge, FL; 2021, sold by Edward Jalbert to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 14, 2021)