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ORIGINAL SINGLE BEADED MOCCASINS
– VERY NICE DISPLAY PIECES OR GOOD SOURCES FOR OLD
BEADS: If you have been collecting old Native
American beadwork for any length of time, you’ve
probably noticed a phenomenon that is prevalent, if not
unique, to that genre of collecting – that of the
“single moccasin”. Contrary to the occasional feeble
attempts at humor, 19TH Century Native
Peoples were no more inclined to be one-legged than any
other ethnic group, but their footwear does show up
frequently on the market as a single specimen, the mate
forever separated and presumably held in a separate
collection.
Despite the impossible odds against it happening, I know
of two incidents where pairs of moccasins that were
separated at some unknown point in the past have been
reunited in recent years. One pair of Lakota child’s
mocs which now reside in my wife’s collection were found
as singles within weeks of each other at two antique
shops several hundred miles apart. Go figure.
I have been told by several older dealers through the
years that they suspected the moccasin pairs were
separated either at the time they were collected under
circumstances where the baggage of a village was looted
and a pair was divided at the time, or more recently, a
pair was split up by descendants arguing over the
dissolution of an early collector’s estate. While such
a division makes little sense, there’s a lot of things
people do that doesn’t make sense, so I guess splitting
up a pair of mocs scores pretty far down the scale of
importance.
Acquired from an old collection, I have these single
moccasins to offer. Each is listed
below with a basic description and accompanying
photographs.
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