Woven Pre 1940 Native American mat. | ||
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Posted 6 years ago
Sewing53
(35 items)
I was told by an expert that this is a pre 1940 woven Makkah mat. They live on the North West Point of Washington State. It also seems that the fish are really whales. I cannot tell what the other symbols are. There are at least 4 colors. I would love to find a closer age estimate. I know it cannot be earlier than 1860and it was made to be sold to tourists.
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This really is a nice mat made by a member of the Makah tribe. The colors on the front are lighter than the other side, due to sunlight. It is difficult to put an age to basketry, but I agree with the expert in that it was Pre 1940. A lot of my Native American basketry that I have posted here, I put a "probable" date of "This" to "That". Or I add an "s" to give a 10-year window on when the basket was made, like 1880's .
The patina of the grasses that were used to weave this is darker, and that can take a very long time for a natural progression of drying out and changing colors. There is also fading of the Green band around the mat in places and that also takes a long time to happen.
Without provenance of who owned this basket before anyone else, no one can give you a precise age for this mat. You have to go by what this basket looks like, the materials used to make it. The designs on it, and by the way I am not sure about the "whales" description, the eyes are kind of big to me but I will not argue with the expert you took this mat to. It could be the artist does that as a kind of signature on their work "And as for the other smaller designs, I think they might be crabs. When I look at them, I see the long, thin legs.
Again, this is a really nice mat, were you given it or did you find it somewhere? I love "finding" really nice things somewhere that you get a great price on. :)
Haha, the expert seems to agree with you. I added the whale part and I stand corrected. I really appreciate your information and the time you took.
I found it at the Alameda Antique Faire. The seller said she thought it South American but hadn’t checked it out. I guessed not. It was inexpensive, so I walked over to a dealer who specialized in this type of item, who identified it. You filled in the blanks.