Small plain-twined flat basket. Bands, etc., in black and yellow. Tag: "Klamath R. Tribes att.". Second tag "280.". Third tag "N.W. California". Per Ralph Shanks: Twined basket, lid/ hat shaped. The basket has a crossed warp starting knot, which is wrapped and slightly indented. The warp material is probably willow. The background weft is conifer root. The weft overlay is beargrass, maidenhair fern, and possibly yellow dyed beargrass. At the starting knot there is .5 inch of three strand twining, followed by plain twining until .5 inch from rim, where there is one weft row of three strand twining, followed by plain twining until the rim. The rim is trimmed. The main design at the start is a band of maidenhair fern with diagonal lines extending from it. Then there are two horizontal bands of maidenhair fern and yellow dyed material. At the rim there are three parallelograms of maidenhair fern with yellow dyed material designs inside them. The basket has an up to the right slant of weft twist and a rightward work direction. The overlay is one-sided. The workface is on the exterior. There is a hair woven into the interior/back face. The basket is from Northwestern California.
Donor:
Phoebe Apperson Hearst
Collection place:
Northwestern California
Verbatim coll. place:
California
Culture or time period:
Northwestern California tribes
Collector:
Phoebe Apperson Hearst
Collection date:
1880-1902
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Basketry (object genre), Caps (headgear), and Twined weaving
Function:
1.5 Household
Accession date:
May 2, 1902
Context of use:
Appears to be the bottom of an unfinished "cap.
Department:
Native California (archaeology and ethnology)
Dimensions:
diameter 12.8 centimeters
Comment:
For materials see Supplementary catalogue 1, p. 78. Photo: 15-8627 Per Ruth Merrill: Cap basket; twined. Warp is Hazel (Corylus cornuta californica), weft is Sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana). White pattern is Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax). Black dye is Maidenhair fern, yellow is Beargrass in Lichen.