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basket, birchbark
basket, birchbark
basket, birchbark
A small round Mistassini-Cree basket, datable to the 18th century. Probably part of a graduated, nested set. This example has an unusual and very fine shaped treatment of the octagonal base. Acquired by Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 1904 by Mr. S. T. Cowles.
Captain Middleton was posted to Hudson's Bay, and other documentation.
Museum documentation and the GRASAC research team.
Read More About This Relative
birchbark; natural split root; dyed split root (or porcupine quills), round splint or sapling branch (rim).
Made from a single piece of bark, with its sides cut in eight places, folded up and sewn with finer split root in a stitch which forms a chain pattern (each stitch splits the middle of the root of the stitch before it). The base is octagonal and the rim circular. The base of each seam is held in place by a small tacking stitch to prevent the bark from splitting. The rim is wrapped at 90 degree intervals with dyed root or porcupine quills; in between are four sections of split root wrapping interwoven with a darker brown root or quill. The scoring of the inner bark to demarcate the circle, its four quadrants, and the eight facets, is clearly visible. At the base, each of the eight sides is folded so as to shape a small concave form. Acquired by Cambridge University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 1904 by Mr. S. T. Cowles.
Four quadrants are marked by the wrapped rim pattern.
The shaped treatment of the base is extremely evenly and finely done.
Trudy Nicks notes that she has seen contemporary birchbark artists briefly heat the bark while shaping and folding to make it more pliable
This style of basket is depicted in a 1757 painting by Arthur Devis in the Clark Art Museum, Williamstown, Massachusetts (Object Number: 2001.1.6). As well, it is similar to baskets collected by Captain Middleton in the mid 18th century, formerly in the Sloane Collection and now in the British Museum.
Provenance
Acquired by Cambridge University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 1904 by Mr. S. T. Cowles.
For reproductions and information of the Devis painting and the British Museum baskets see Ruth B. Phillips in Mariet Westermann ed., Anthropologies of Art, New Haven CN: Yale University Press.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown Mistassini-Cree/Eeyou (Eastern James Bay Quebec Cree) artist, basket, birchbark. Currently in the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, E 1904.127. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip May 2009; GRASAC item id 27126.
This record was created as part of a GRASAC research trip to Cambridge University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, May 4-9 2009.
Researchers present: Trudy Nicks, Stacey Loyer, Ruth Phillips, and Rachel Hand.