ArtPage on Baskets and Basketry

basket, basketry, and basketwork - A basket is a woven container made of such tough and bendable materials as twigs or strips (veneer) of wood, cane, rattan, reed, rush, wire, or plastic, often with a handle or handles; or something that resembles a basket, especially in shape or function. Baskets are usually light in weight. Among the most commonly used basketry techniques are plaiting, twining, coiling, and imbrication. Basketry is the art or craft of making baskets, or objects woven like baskets, and is one of the oldest and most universal of crafts, practised among even the most primitive of peoples. It may be that basketry preceded the development of both textiles and fired pottery. Many baskets produced in Europe have, by long tradition, been produced using the rod-like twigs, harvested from willow trees (osier). Much furniture employing basketry techniques has been made using cane, rattan and rush.

Examples:

Jan Brueghel the Younger (Flemish, 1601-1678), A Basket of Flowers, oil on wood panel, 18 1/2 x 26 7/8 inches (47 x 68.3 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See still life.

Myer Myers (American, 1723-1795, New York, NY), Basket, 1760-1770, silver, 11 1/8 x 14 1/2 x 11 3/8 inches (28.3 x 36.8 x 28.9 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See American Colonial art.

Worcester Factory (manufacturer), English, Circular Basket, c. 1765-1768, solt-paste porcelain, diameter 6 1/2 inches, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, CA. See basket.

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863), Basket of Flowers, 1848-49, oil on canvas, 42 1/4 x 56 inches (107.3 x 142.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See Romanticism and still life.

Josef Hoffmann (Austrian, 1870-1956) for Wiener Werkstätte, Fruit Basket, 1904, silver, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. See Art Nouveau and secession.

Minnie Lacy (American Indian, Yavapai tribe), Tray, c. 1900, martynia, willow, diameter 14 inches, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK.

Egypt, Lidded Basket, 19th or 20th century, Burke Museum, U of Washington, Seattle, WA.

American Indian (Pima or San Carlos Apache), Basketry Bowl, 19th or 20th century, Burke Museum, U of Washington, Seattle, WA.

American Indian, Cuahilla Mission, California, Snake and Mouse Design Basket, c. early 20th century, Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM. See snake.

Louisa Keyser (Dat So La Lee) (American Indian, Washoe Tribe), Degikup basket, 1917-1918, willow, bracken fern, redbud, 9 3/4 x 14 1/2 inches, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK.

Mexico, Sombrero (Basketry Hat), 20th century, Burke Museum, U of Washington, Seattle, WA.

Lillian and Pat Hickman Elliott (American, contemporary), Untitled, 1986, hog gut and sticks, 16 x 9 x 9 inches, ASU Art Museum, Tempe, AZ.

Dorothy Gill Barnes (American, contemporary), Pear Bark, 1987, fiber, 7 1/2 x 9 inches, ASU Art Museum, Tempe, AZ.

Burke Museum collection of basketry, U of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Shapes and Uses of California Indian Basketry.

Also see arms & armor, bamboo, fiber, leather, raffia, openwork, and vessel.