Posted 9 years ago
mblaschke3
(1 item)
Can someone please tell me what this is? I'm not sure, after trying to figure it out myself, whether or not it is anything of Native American or African origin, or rather just something newer made to look like an older basket. It is around 10" in diameter and 2" deep. Thank you for any help that you can give me!
It's definitely not Native American, if that helps. No Native American Indian basket weavers use this combination of colors, weaving technique, and material.
It looks like the coils are wrapped with raffia, and the stitch joining the coils is wrapped, leaving a space where you can actually see between the coils. This is a technique common in baskets made in parts of Africa, Mexico, and Polynesia...but not in American Indian baskets.
There are also craft books widely available, however, that show how to make baskets like this, so it could have been made by just about any non-Native American crafts person. But I'd say African is most likely, although that really doesn't narrow it down too much. Africa is a huge continent, with lots of tribes that weave baskets that resemble Indian baskets.