Baskets

Indian Baskets (Schiffer Book for Collectors)

Explore the stunning diversity of North American Indian and Eskimo baskets, from little-known native basketry to the more common forms. This colorful book combines manufacturing techniques, raw materials, forms, and decorations with information on native lifestyles. More than 175 regional and tribal styles are documented in an easy-to-use and beautifully illustrated format, with a newly updated value guide. Readers will be able to identify their own Indian baskets using this guide's standardized terminology, identification keys, glossary, maps, and bibliographies. Hundreds of baskets were photographed for this volume, many from the famous and unparalleled collection of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University where the authors began their basketry research in the 1970s.

Making The New Baskets: Alternative Materials, Simple Techniques

The Nature of Basketry

This delightful book presents a wide variety of baskets with the author's view of "temporary" and "permanent" uses, and hundreds of photographs to illustrate his text. Basketmaking is a hand process that has never been mechanized and continues virtually unchanged in each part of the world. Here are found Asian, American and European ceremonial baskets, some of which support lavish facades of feathers and shells, as well as humble work baskets and those made quickly to satisfy a moments need. Many traditional methods of converting plant materials into baskets are described with pictures of their constructions and discussions of their unique qualities.

Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Appalachia

This is perhaps the country's most authentic and colorful book on American baskets and the interesting people who made them. Although this in-depth people-oriented book is centered on basketry in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and the surrounding area, basketmaking in Europe, New England, Pennsylvania, and other parts of the country is examined as a means of comparing and contrasting forms, materials and designs. Indian baskets, especially Cherokee, are also included.

Remember Your Relations: Elsie Allen Baskets, Family, And Friends

photos & bios of Pomo Indian basketweavers

The Bentley Collection Guide: The Reference Tool for Consultants, Collectors, and Enthusiasts of Longaberger Baskets

Woven Worlds: Basketry from the Clark Field Collection

Basketry has been woven into the rich tapestry of Native American cultures for centuries. Native American basket weavers have transformed twigs, grasses, roots, ferns, and bark into works of art that are unsurpassed for their beauty and technological skill. The Clark Field collection at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is recognized as one of the most comprehensive basketry collections in North America.

What started as a hobby for Clark Field, a Tulsa businessman, the collecting of Native American basketry soon became an obsession resulting in a collection of more than one thousand baskets. Field’s goal to “collect authentic specimens of baskets made for actual use by all basket-making tribes” resulted in a collection of extraordinary baskets that tell of the remarkable adaptability of native peoples and how basketry enabled many of their traditions and values to continue.

Following Clark FieldÂ’s travels in his endeavor to amass his collection, we learn about the weavers and their baskets from eight major cultural areas: the Southwest, California, the intermountain West (including the Great Basin and Plateau), the Northwest Coast, Arctic and Subarctic, Prairie and Plains, the Eastern Woodlands (including the Northeast and Great Lakes), and the Southeast. A color map in each chapter enhances the description of the area and its indigenous cultures, historical information, and a discussion of basket weavers, including some interviews with weavers and/or their families.

American Baskets: A Cultural History of a Traditional Domestic Art

Whether tramping through the woods of Appalachia in search of the straightest-grained white oak or wading through the marshes of the Carolina low country gathering bulrush, the basket maker is intimately bound to nature and the raw materials of her craft. Few traditional handcrafts still in practice today, adds Robert Shaw in American Baskets, are so dependent upon the maker's skill with her hands--only the simplest tools, if any, are needed.

Understanding the history and cultural origins of basket-making techniques is the first step in a collector's or an enthusiast's appreciation of fine vintage or contemporary baskets, and Shaw's book, an introduction to the major American basketry traditions, is a good place to start reading. Deftly weaving together cultural, religious, and personal histories and geographic and environmental influences on the craft, Shaw traces the development of the many distinct native traditions: the Aleuts of Alaska; the Cherokees; the so-called immigrant traditions of New England; the Shakers; the Germans of the Taconic Mountains in New York; traditions in Nantucket, Pennsylvania, and Appalachia; and the African American communities of the coastal Southeast. Simple, full-color photographs of some of the finest specimens in American collections are accompanied by intelligent, thorough captions listing the artisan (when known), date and place of origin, various materials and dyes used, dimensions, and notes on the basket's intended or possible uses.

Rather than muddying the often quite compelling stories of the earliest American basket makers and their descendants, information aimed at collectors is gathered into separate sections that provide overviews of the market conditions for various styles of baskets and how they've changed in the last century or so, what to look for and snap up at auctions--and what to avoid. Caring for and displaying fine baskets is covered in the book's brief final chapter. --Liana Fredley

American Baskets is the first book to offer a comprehensive overview of an art form that is ten thousand years old. Basketmaking is the most basic of all crafts in its methods and material, and its development reflects specifically local traditions. Here, author Robert Shaw ("the information source on major U.S. crafts" -- Booklist) examines the craft's history and artistry throughout the country and through various periods.

Once among the most common of household objects, handmade baskets have a cachet that has never been equaled. Despite the fact that the American artisan basket has all but disappeared from daily use (the baskets that we have in our homes today are either made from synthetic materials, often by machine, or imported from overseas where labor is cheap), the genuine example of a handcrafted basket is highly prized as a beautiful and valuable object. Baskets are fixtures in the popular style of country decorating, and collectors search out fine antiques as well as outstanding contemporary basket creations. American Baskets celebrates the treasures of yesterday while exploring the work of many of the fine artists who labor over the art form today.

Beautifully photographed and exhaustively researched, American Baskets analyzes the influences of both Native Americans and early settlers, including the Aleuts and Hopi as well as the Quakers and Pennsylvania Dutch. The significant contributions of early African-American East Coast culture and the rich heritage of rural Appalachia are also discussed. Paying special attention to the collectible aspect of the American basket, Robert Shaw investigates every type of basket indigenous to this country: ash splint farm baskets, rattan "lightship" baskets, rye straw baskets, African-American rush baskets, and more. A resource guide listing museums that house basket exhibits, antiques dealers and auction houses that sell high-quality pieces, and traditional basket artisans and organizations completes the elegant package.

Lightship Baskets of Nantucket

On the island of Nantucket, the Nantucket Lightship Basket developed over many decades into the distinctive basket so highly prized by collectors today. The baskets evolved in the mid-nineteenth century from wooden splint baskets made by Algonquin Indians and were adapted by Nantucketers, who introduced hardwood bottoms, utilized wooden molds, and replaced wooden splints with rattan. The fascinating history of this basket and its makers is richly illustrated with color photographs that detail construction and show beautiful examples of the craft.

Special emphasis is give to depicting the rigorous life aboard the New South Shoal lightship, the crew of which produced beautifully constructed baskets, many of which are shown here. The history of the basket is updated to the present day, including the 1940s development of the covered "pocketbook" basket and the work of contemporary basket makers.

For the collector, Martha Lawrence provides details to consider in evaluating antique and contemporary baskets. She also takes the reader through easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for the construction of a basket, including accurate photographs of the stages crucial to producing an authentic piece.

Lightship Baskets of Nantucket is a fascinating study of a craft whose popularity is increasing and whose heritage is as enduring as the baskets themselves.

The Bread Basket