Featured Beaded Sash. Native American?

post #4, will suffice.........

 

Blanket strip, definitely not vintage. The wooden beads and cordage coming out of the rosettes are a giveaway. It looks like the owner tried to dirty it up in order to make it look old, but the vibrant colors are another giveaway that it’s a modern reproduction. The beads are most likely Czechoslovakian or Japanese.

It is beaded in lazy stitch that has been so that it lays quite flat. Most lazy stitched blanket strips have a very ridged look on the beadwork. Cheyenne beadworkers often did (and do) very flat lazy stitch, but this is clearly not a Cheyenne piece.

The Navy blue sections are classic Sioux blanket strip designs, but the rosettes are a mess stylistically and technically.

Overall, a quite poorly made knockoff of a northern plains blanket strip.

 

Poor quality modern reproduction of a blanket strip. Age is impossible to determine, but probably in the last 20 or so years. The cheap wooden beads and modern cordage that looks like shoe lacing are giveaways that that this is a modern item. No Native-made blanket strip would have rosette drops like that.

The craftsmanship and design are poor, and the design is not easily attributable to a particular tribe. The navy blue sections are classic Sioux motifs and are ubiquitous on vintage Sioux blanket strips. The rosettes are a mess both stylistically and technically, and have been done in a combination of flat lazy stitch and appliqué. The colors are garish, and the designs are weird, particularly on the rosettes. It is almost certainly non-Native made, probably by a Boy Scout or other similar Indian hobbyist.

It appears to have been dirtied up in an attempt to antique it, but the bead colors are far too vibrant to be vintage. They are almost certainly modern Czechoslovakian or Japanese, and are probably sewn with Nymo thread.

Sioux blanket strips are done in lazy stitch that is typically strongly ridged. This strip is done in flattened lazy stitch that looks on first impression as if it was meant to resemble appliqué or Crow stitch, which produces a very flat effect. Neither of these techniques is appropriate for a Sioux style blanket strip. Cheyenne beadworkers often make very flat lazy stitched beadwork, but nothing about this strip is Cheyenne.

Bottom line: A not terribly talented beadworker spent a LOT of time producing a poor quality knockoff.