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Baskets play a leading role in many California traditional stories attesting to their cultural importance. In one widely shared creation story, the ancestors emerge from womb like baskets. And in a Yokuts tale, Coyote, an infamous trickster, poked his head through an old basket and mocked it – and the basket choked him to death.
ProvenancePrivate collection
BibliographyFognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 286.
Culture
Yokuts
Bowl
Datec. 1890-1910
DimensionsOverall: 9 1/2 × 21 1/2 in. (24.1 × 54.6 cm)
Object numberT0858
Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextCoils of deer grass are tightly stitched together with sedge root to form the foundation for the rattlesnake design executes in bracket fern root and redbud on this superb bowl. The bands of diamonds on the body of the basket recall the patterning seen on rattlesnakes, making reference to the importance of the rattlesnake in local tradition. Baskets play a leading role in many California traditional stories attesting to their cultural importance. In one widely shared creation story, the ancestors emerge from womb like baskets. And in a Yokuts tale, Coyote, an infamous trickster, poked his head through an old basket and mocked it – and the basket choked him to death.
ProvenancePrivate collection
BibliographyFognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 286.
On View
On view
