UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST, Rattle Top Basket with Concentric Bands and Radial Wedge Motifs, c. 1890-1900

UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST

Rattle Top Basket with Concentric Bands and Radial Wedge Motifs, c. 1890-1900

spruce root, grass, maidenhair fern stem, dyes, and pebbles or shot [?], 3 x 4 x 4 in (7.6 x 10.2 x 10.2 cm)

LOT 57
ESTIMATE: $2,500 — $3,500

An exceptionally fine Tlingit rattle-top basket, the weave of this work is astonishingly tight at approximately 50 stitches per square centimetre. Bands of pale yellow grass enliven the surface, set against false-embroidered maidenhair whose deep brown-maroon and orange tones remain remarkably rich, even more than a century after its creation. At the upper register, intermittent reddish-brown stitching gathers into a handsome ladder band before meeting the darker braided rim. Contained within the knop of the lid are small pebbles or shot, which sound softly when the basket is moved and give this ingenious form its distinctive name.

Provenance

An Important Private Collection, Camano Island, WA;
by descent in the family to present Private Collection.

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