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Feathered Basketry Bowl

CulturePomo, Central California
Dateca. 1880
MediumWillow shoots, sedge root, feathers, abalone shell, and glass and clam shell beads
DimensionsOverall: 4 × 14 1/2 inches (10.16 × 36.83 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number33-1335
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 207
DescriptionBone buttons on handles and around top. Small black feathers woven in around top. black beads.Gallery Label
As this highly embellished basket demonstrates, Pomo weavers achieved complicated visual effects with diverse materials. The layered star-shaped pattern enhances the mosaic of textures created by fiber, shell, feather and glass beads. Feather baskets were frequently made to honor the dead. During cremations or at memorial ceremonies one year following a death, baskets were burned along with other possessions of the deceased. In part, these funerary traditions account for the rarity of older works.
Published References
Torrence, Gaylord, ed. Continuum: North American Native Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
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