Posted 8 years ago
finders9
(84 items)
I recently purchased this very large (21" tall) basket at auction as part of a lot described as "5 Venezuelan baskets"; as it turns out 3 of the baskets are, in fact, Venezuelan, a forth is Alaskan, but this one is a mystery to me. I have no special expertise in this area so hope one of the experts viewing on this forum might be able to assist. These baskets were offered as part of an auction of a collection that included primarily Native American baskets, but also a few from South America, Indonesia and Africa.
The construction technique rules out the possibility that this is Native American. No Native American Indian tribe uses this combination of stitching technique on their coiled baskets.
I would suspect that this is a makenge root basket from Zambia or neighboring Angola, based on the use of those diagonal lines formed where the stitches cross over two coils instead of one, creating a textural pattern. It's a very common technique found on makenge baskets
Thanks ever so much! In retrospect it does remind me of makenge baskets I have seen (and admired) but don't recall having seen one with a figure design. In any case - I consider this mystery solved and again many thanks to you!