Very Rare Trade Brooch / Medal

Of all the North American artifacts that one might collect, the items dealing with the fur trade are probably the most historically significant and rare. Most of these items were utilitarian and as such have little to offer artistically, but everything to offer historically. Having said that, all fur trade items are rare, the super rare falls under the category of trade silver. The early fur traders noted that the North American natives loved colour and decoration. The natives using dyed porcupine quills and sea shell as well as other modified natural objects to enhance their appearance. Bone beads and animal claws also come to mind. It did not take long, fur traders being competitive souls, to order not only knives, axes and kettles, but also beads to replace quills, copper janglers to replace bone and silver to replace the mother of pearl shimmer of sea shells.

A large and polific industry developed primarily in Montreal and many silversmiths answered the call, turning out thousands of tiny sheet silver goods in the form of brooches, earrings and crosses. these items being manufactured using coin silver. Occasionally larger objects such as medals, gorgets and hat bands were produced, but are very rare. Among the most prolific of the Montreal silversmiths, were Robert Cruickshank and Pierre Huguet Dit Latour (1749-1817). One of the most famous and larger pieces of trade silver to have survived is in the museum collection of the Heye Foundation in New York, U.S.A. It is a cross being 11 1/2" by 7 3/4". The cross bears the touchmark of Pierre Huguet Dit Latour. Please notice the depiction of an Indian seated, drinking liquor from a bottle and in his other hand holding a tobacco pipe

The medal I offer here bears the identical likeness to that on the cross. Even down to the tatoo like marks on the arms. What is particularly noteworth is if we examine the design on the cross more carefully, it represents a MEDAL (see ring and ribbon). There is no doubt the medal offered may well have provided the inspiration for the design on the cross. This does not prove the medal offered is by Pierre Huguet Dit Latour, but the definitive association is there. Also, being the design is not improved much or altered on the cross, it is most likely that this medal may be safely attributed to Latour.

The medal probably started out as a 18th century great cloak button, which lent itself to modification into the trade item here offered. In the book "The Covenant Chain, Indian Ceremonial and Trade Silver", page 63, quote: "Among the Algonquin tribes, the use of floral patterns was well established before the coming of the European. Floral patterns are variations on the double -curve motif well known in Algonquin art - two opposing curves stemming from a single base. This design is thought to represent the "celestial tree" as symbol of peace and of the origin of the world. Leaves and branches of coniferous trees indigenous to the Eastern woodlands were also a popular design."

Note the reverse of this medal bears the original floral design, again, making this old cloak button ideal for modification for the fur trade. This medal is of an iron base material, over which has been applied a heavy plating of silver (done at this time by applying an amalgam of mercury and silver, then evaporating off the mercury to leave a very heavy plating of silver.) The medal is 2 3/8" in diameter, with a worn suspension hole. The patina is correct and I have examined this item by microscope and do declare without reservation, that it is absolutely genuine and of the period 1780-1810.

Certainly one of the rarest trade items to surface in a very long time.

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