An Early California Pony Beaded Strip

California Native Tribe

Last half 19th century | Glass Beads | Item 2028

This is a beautiful accessory, possibly a belt, woven of blue and white pony beads on a sinew matrix. Both ends are capped with beige silk which is well worn. The design is broken into two parts, roughly equal in size. The first part starts with a randomly place group of beads about 1/2″ long. From here the beads go solid to blue then rotating to solid white then back and forth. There are 5 large blue sections and five smaller white ones. This abruptly changes to a much more complex pattern of blue diamonds split with two long, single beaded rows of white. The background is all done in solid white. The long edges are not smooth, but have blue or white beads alternating with no beads to make for a bumpy edge.

Dimensions 27" long, 1 6/8" wide
Condition Good with some missing beads throughout
Provenance A private collection
An early beaded pony strip of blue and white glass beads all on sinew with silk capped ends, circa 1850 or earlier.