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Storage basket
Native American, Nipmuc
1830s
Object Place: Massachusetts (Central western), United States, Northeast
Medium/Technique
Ash, laundry bluing, Mohegan pink (red and white lead)
Dimensions
31.11 x 53.34 x 43.18 cm (12 1/4 x 21 x 17 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Mr. and Mrs. William White Howells
Accession Number1994.187
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsBasketry
DescriptionRectangular basket constructed of wide checker plaiting; three rows of narrow wicker plaiting on top and bottom edges; single wrapped rim. Red and blue painted symbols. Front and back bear a medallion composed of triangles at center of a large "X" with leaf-like ellipses. Curls and moon-shapes form a stockade border on top and sides. Stipes and dots mark off the bottom border. Sides bear three repeated medallions composed of domes around a center space; two on top row and one centered below. Newspaper fragments line the inside.
InscriptionsThe interior of this basket retains numerous small fragments of what appears to be nineteenth-century newspaper. While legible, none of the fragments in a fairly thorough examination seemed to contain any date or place name. GWRW 6/5/09
Provenance1993, said to have been found in Maine and taken to Hurst Gallery, Cambridge, MA; 1994, sold by Hurst Gallery to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 22, 1994)