Williams Gallery West - Folk Art - Native American Arts - Baskets

 Tlingit Coil Basket

"Rolling Log" design

circa 1920 

SOLD

Approximate Dimensions:

Height: 4" x Diameter at lip 5.5" x Diameter at base - 3"

Condition - Very Good. No significant wear or damage. No repairs.

Beautifully hand woven coil basket with very fine weave, approx 16 to 18 stitches per inch.  Design is visible from the outside, invisible inside, a design feature typical of Tlingit baskets.  

Basket is encircled with 2 rows of rolling crosses, seven in the top row and 8 in the bottom row, 15 in all.  The rolling log has been said to symbolize earth, the four seasons, unity, or continuity.

In addition to utilitarian baskets, Tlingit people also wove basket hats.  It has been suggested that this piece may be a baby "basket hat", it is most likely a small storage, collecting, or trinket basket. Tlingit and other Northwest coast baskets were typically woven from spruce root and seagrass.

The Tlingit are an Indigenous people of northwestern America. Their name for themselves is Lingít, meaning "people".  The Tlingit are a matrilineal society who developed a complex hunter-gatherer culture in the temperate rainforest of the southeast Alaska coast and the Alexander Archipelago. An inland subgroup, known as the Inland Tlingit, inhabit the far northwestern part of the province of British Columbia and the southern Yukon Territory of Canada. 

In Tlingit culture a heavy emphasis is placed upon family and kinship, and on a rich tradition of oratory. Wealth and economic power are important indicators of status, but so is generosity and proper behavior, all signs of "good breeding" and ties to aristocracy. 

Art and spirituality are incorporated in nearly all areas of Tlingit culture, with even everyday objects such as spoons and storage boxes decorated and imbued with spiritual power and historical beliefs.

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