Advanced Search
Requires Photography
Splint Basket
Sarah Maria Arnold Cisco (Native American, Hassanimisco Nipmuck, 1818 – 1891)
Native American, Hassanamisco Nipmuc
1845
Place of Creation: Grafton, MA
Medium/Technique
Brown ash splint, newspaper remains, Mohegan pink, laundry bluing and Spanish brown pigments
Dimensions
Height x width: 27.9 × 43.8 × 31.8 cm (11 × 17 1/4 × 12 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Ned Jalbert and Keith Ravaioli
Accession Number2021.329
ClassificationsBasketry
The prolific 19th-century basket maker, Sarah Maria (Arnold) Cisco, also known as Princess Sweet Flower, created this basket from ash splints. Cisco was a member of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribe located in current day Grafton, MA. She was the daughter of Chief James Lemuel Cisco and the wife of Samuel Cisco. Cisco is widely recognized today for her skillful artistic decoration, such as the domed medallions, dots, curls, and "s" shapes on the lid of this basket, along with images of local plants, and stripes of Mohegan pink and Laundry Bluing (colored pigments). By the 19th century, baskets had become key trade items, as well as gifts, with people outside the community. This example would have been probably been used for a utilitarian purpose.
ProvenanceEdith Wheaton Smith (b. 1886 – d. 1959) and her husband, John Henry Smith (b. 1889 – d. 1971), Phoenixville, CT [see note]; 1968, gift of John Henry Smith to Lyent W. Russell (b. 1904 – d. 1998), Hamden, CT; 1988, sold by Lyent Russell to Ellsworth Stevinson, Valley Farm Antiques, Essex, CT; 1989, sold by Ellsworth Stevinson to Edward Jalbert, Ocean Ridge, FL; 2021, gift of Edward Jalbert and Keith Ravaioli to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 16, 2021)
NOTE: The basket may have been in Edith Wheaton Smith’s family since the 19th century; newsprint from 1845 lines the interior. A handwritten note accompanying the basket states that it comes from “Wheaton House,” almost certainly the Union Society of Phoenixville House, a historic community building in Eastford, Connecticut that belonged to Edith Wheaton Smith.
NOTE: The basket may have been in Edith Wheaton Smith’s family since the 19th century; newsprint from 1845 lines the interior. A handwritten note accompanying the basket states that it comes from “Wheaton House,” almost certainly the Union Society of Phoenixville House, a historic community building in Eastford, Connecticut that belonged to Edith Wheaton Smith.