Object name: Carrying basket / Collector: Edith VanAllen Lloyd / Culture or time period: Northwestern California tribes - Hearst Museum Portal Search Results

Start Over Object name Carrying basket Collector Edith VanAllen Lloyd Culture or time period Northwestern California tribes

Hearst Museum object titled Carrying basket, accession number 1-9575, described as Conical carrying basket, ornamented and not openwork. Rim strengthened with rod bound with hide. Tag: "Yuki". Per Ralph Shanks: Conical twined burden basket. Used, with stains and debris. The basket has a crossed warp starting knot. The warps are peeled shoots. The wefts are unpeeled bear grass overlay designs and a background of conifer root. The first inch and a half wefts are leather. There are three reinforcing rods in the interior of the base and one at the rim, held on by leather. The design is diagonal zigzags up to below the rim. Directly below the rim there is a horizontal band of stacked triangles and trapezoids, in the style of a primary band. These designs are common in the Wailaki, Lassik, and Yuki areas. Starting at the base the basket has three strand twining alternating with plain twining once at the base, and then plain twining to the rim, where there is one row of three strand twining. The basket slightly undulates. The rim is trimmed. There is leather lashing a large interior reinforcing rod to the rim. The overlay is primarily on the exterior with some visible on the interior. The basket has an exterior workface, a rightward direction, and an up to the right slant of weft twist. There is a hair woven into the basket around five inches below the rim. Per the 1900 US census, George Block from Round Valley is Wailaki. There is no record of a Nanny Block; George Block's wife's name on the census is Ellen, who is also noted as Wailaki. Since the collection note states that this basket was collected from "Wife of Geo. Block" it is assumed it is Ellen that is being referred to. The basket has characteristics that match Wailaki, Lassik, and Yuki techniques and materials, but based on the Census data it is likely this is a Wailaki basket.