Quillwork is among the oldest decorative arts of Indigenous North America. Long before the introduction of glass beads, porcupine quills were dyed, softened, flattened and worked onto hide, bark and cloth, producing designs that could be geometric, symbolic, ceremonial or deeply personal. With European contact, the practice changed. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, quillwork on birchbark developed in part in response to new markets, and objects such as boxes, baskets, chair backs and other finely decorated forms became sought-after trade goods. Beads eventually became more common for embroidery because they were faster to use, but quillwork never disappeared. It remained a demanding art, dependent on patience, dexterity and inherited knowledge.

By the 1970s, quill baskets and boxes had entered another phase. On Mnidoo Mnising, or Manitoulin Island, Anishinaabe women continued to make birchbark and sweetgrass boxes decorated with porcupine quills, often for sale to visitors at the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, pow wows and shops.

The intricate designs of these contemporary works carried forward an historic visual language, while their makers expanded the form with colour, invention and individual style.

While the maker of this find work is not known, in this later period, artists including Maime Migwans, Josephine Bondi, Marina Recollet, Evelyn Toulouse, Linda Kimewon and Delia Bebonang helped sustain the practice, showing that quillwork is not a relic of the past but a living art, adapting beautifully to new contexts.

In the present lot, we encounter a small box but most certainly not a simple one. The artist has set the lid around a star, worked in pale, pink, and green dyed quills, then carried the design outward through rings of triangles, fans, and scalloped borders. Around the sides, the decoration continues in alternating bands, so that the object is finished from every angle. It is a wonderful example of the reward of both patience and control.