1938.36.1928

Collection type

Object

Description

Oblong flexible open basket of cedar bark, twined technique with chequer base and four rows with dark brown weft near rim. [CAK 05/08/2009]

Long description

Oblong flexible open basket of cedar bark, twined technique with chequer base and four rows with dark brown weft near brim. The basket widens in all directions from the base to the brim. [CAK 05/08/2009]

Geographical reference

Canada

Northern America > North America > Canada

British Columbia Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) NW Coast

Cultural groups

Haida

Tsimshian

Person

Field collector Beatrice Mary Blackwood

PRM source Beatrice Mary Blackwood

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1925

Date collected

1925

Acquisition information

Donated: 1943

Materials and processes

Material Cedar Bark Fibre Plant, Process Twined Woven, Process Basketry, Process Chequer

Dimensions

Height: max 131 mm, Width: max 147 mm, Length: max 203 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1938.36.1928 Other numbers: Blackwood ii 1869

Research and responses

The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum’s collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:

This basket was viewed alongside other basketry items on Monday Sept 14, 2009. Delegates were uncertain that this basket was made by a Haida weaver. They noted that it is made using a backwards S-twist, and that the jog goes the wrong way, which made them question the Haida provenance. Nika Collison clarified that Haida baskets have a Z-twist, rather than an S-twist. She thought if it was made by a Haida weaver, the weaver could have been living on the mainland, or perhaps it was a Haida weaver working in a Tsimshian style. The material was identified as red cedar bark, twined. Candace Weir proposed that it might have been used for storing medicine (i.e. dried plants). [CAK 19/05/2010]

Search terms: Basketry, Basket