Posted 7 years ago
betcha2020
(1 item)
This basket was in a home my family purchased over 25 years ago. I can't seem to find anything very similar. It's a tight-woven coil basket in good shape. Approx. 8" diameter and 5" in height (with lid). I'd be interested to know it's use (trinkets?) and any available history. I believe the original owners of our home ancestors were from the Kentucky and Missouri areas. THANK YOU!!
All I can tell you, as to origin, is that it isn't a Native American Indian basket.
The coils are formed with a bundle technique, and wrapped with raffia. The designs were painted on, rather than being part of the construction. That eliminates it being Native American, since no U.S. tribe used/uses that combination of techniques and material.
The crossed braided string handles could be a clue as to where it was made. Similar techniques are used in Central and South America. The basket itself is well-made. It takes considerable skill or practice to make a basket like this with a closely fitting lid, so I doubt it was an amateur or crafter's attempt to make an "Indian" basket, as was the case with many of the Arts and Crafts Movement baskets from the early 1900s, which are also raffia-wrapped bundle coiled. It does look, however, like someone, sometime, took a ready-made basket and applied the paint, which has a haphazard, non-original look to it.
Wow....THANKS for such a quick and knowledgeable response....so very much appreciated!