Indian Relics

George Cope was born near West Chester, Pennsylvania, and lived most of his life in Chester County. As the popularity of illusionistic trompe l’oeil (paintings that “fool the eye”) increased in the late nineteenth century, Cope turned his attention to still-life works. Indian Relics would have appealed to his patrons as both a trompe l’oeil and as a Western-themed painting. It depicts Native American artifacts including two pipes of the type made by Plains Indians in the early nineteenth century; trade beads, also from the nineteenth century; spear points believed to date from before 400 A.D.; a stone ax head that may date from before 800 A.D.; a Ketland trade pistol, and a bowie knife.