Basket

Wasco twined baskets of this kind are popularly called sally bags and were used as carrying baskets – remains of two leather straps can be seen near the rim. Mason (1904: 439) noted that they were ‘made in plain twined weaving over warp of rushes, the patterns being effected by overlaying the twine of hemp with strips of liber that in structure resemble corn husks’.

This example is in good condition, with patterns in the shape of four human figures, six deer with antlers, seven geese (?), twenty-eight fish and six birds with spread wings. The human figures are of two types, differing in details of the face, which may mean that both sexes are represented. The rim of the basket, as in many examples, is sewn with a border of European cotton cloth. The central section of the base is darker brown in colour.

Steven Hooper, 1997

Entry taken from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection, Vol. 2: Pacific, African and Native North American Art, edited by Steven Hooper (Yale University Press, 1997) p. 289.