Jicarilla Apache Bowl Shaped Basket with Handles [SOLD]

This large and deep Jicarilla Apache basket is typical in shape and size of most Jicarilla functional baskets. They are used for gathering fruit or nuts or other materials and used in household chores as needed. They are very functional and very attractive. They were also made to satisfy a commercial market.

All Jicarilla baskets are of coil weave, usually of sumac, but sometimes of willow. They generally use a five-rod bundle or foundation, resulting in thick coils with a massive feel, but the number of rods is difficult to determine when they are covered with the outer layer of weave. Commercial dye is generally used for design and those strong colors fade to a beautiful mellow shade over time.

The designs are generally stronger on the interior because fading is less. There are two basic design styles throughout the circumference of the body. Three of the designs are arrowhead shaped, executed in red and green colors. Another design, also repeated three times, and executed in red, is a stepped pattern, generally defined as a mountain design. These three are connected continuously, ending in a ceremonial line break.

The rim was finished in a herringbone weave For convenience, the weaver provided two handles on the basket.

The Jicarilla Apache are known to have had contact with Plains Indians at some point in their history. They made raids on the Plains Indians but always returned to their mountain home. They went on buffalo hunts and raids for horses and lived in teepees covered with skin or cloth, and they made parfleches like those of the Plains Indians.

They also had contacts with Puebloan peoples and is where they learned their agricultural knowledge and possibly learned pueblo basketry techniques. Yet, they were and are Apache and their lifestyle adheres closely with that of Apache tribes.

Jicarilla Apache basketry covers a long span of time, but little is known of their work before they were settled on a reservation in 1887 in Northern New Mexico.

Condition: good condition with fading of the dyed parts

Provenance: this Jicarilla Apache Bowl Shaped Basket with Handles is from the collection of a gentleman from California

Reference: Apache Indian Baskets by Clara Lee Tanner

TAGS: Native American Baskets, Apache, American Indians