Woman's wearing blanket with ribbon work and four ribbon hands / Unknown
Essay/Description
A fine Osage wearing blanket decorated with ribbon work strips, silver broaches, and applique satin hand design outlined in beads. 9 short bands of vertical ribbon work are side-by-side along the bottom. At the corners (additional) 1 1/2-inch width strips extend up further bounding both sides. The inside of the bottom row and the two sides are outlined with white cut and fold saw tooth ribbon applique. Inside the bounded field created by the ribbon work boarders are four satin hand-shaped cut outs evenly spaced in a horizontal row. These are purple in color and are outlined in double row of white beads. A silver broach is attached to the blue wool blanket on each side of the hands (top center, left center, right center, and bottom center). The "middle" hands share broaches with their neighbors. The total of is four hands surrounded by 13 broaches. Of this number the bottom broach under the left (facing) hand is missing, leaving 12 present. The ribbon work is executed in the following colors: light blue, white, yellow, pink, green, and purple. On the top of the wool blanket, a "rainbow" selvage pattern is present.