UNIDENTIFIED TLINGIT ARTIST
Rattle Top Basket, c. 1890-1900
spruce root, natural and dyed bear grass and possibly maidenhair fern, 6.75 x 4.5 x 4.5 in (17.1 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm)
decorated with stepped and geometric motifs.

Provenance
A Vancouver Collection.

Sharp and linear against the finely woven grass, the geometric motifs of this tall, elegant rattle-top basket are fine examples of Tlingit weaving design. The main body features three bands of coloured false embroidery woven into the grass, the upper and lower bands matching in design but carefully stepped to add visual interest. The body’s central band matches the rim edge of the lid which gently slopes towards a fine knob handle, home to a collection of tiny shells or pebbles. The general shape and design of this basket borrows from the form of the much used berry basket, but the lid and its distinctive rattle speak to the burgeoning trade in these baskets; functional but sought after works by skilled Tlingit artisans.

References: For a detailed introduction to Tlingit baskets see Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh & William A.Turnbaugh, Indian Baskets, (Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd. in collaboration with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University), 1986, p. 150. See also A slightly later in Bill Holm, The Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art, (Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum/University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1983), cat. 67, p. 52.