Tobacco basket, twined. Two design bands of zigzag, one band of diagonal hatching, broad band of alternating pine root and xerophyllum tenax, similar narrower band near base of basket. Hazel shoot warps exposed 1.1 cm below the mouth. Tag "Klamath River Tribes Unsp.". Cloth tag "124". Per Ralph Shanks: Twined tobacco basket, missing the lid. The warps are crossed at the starting knot. The warp material is probably hazel. The wefts are conifer root with beargrass overlay. At the base there is plain twining to the edge, where there is one weft row of three strand twining. Plain twining then continues to just below the rim, where there are exposed warps, followed by three weft rows of plain twining, and the last weft row is three strand twining. The design begins at the edge of the base, with alternating beargrass; the next design is two horizontal zigzag lines in conifer root above and below a horizontal row of slashes. At the rim there are vertical lines of beargrass and conifer root alternating. The basket has an up to the right slant of weft twist. The basket has a rightward work direction with an exterior workface. The basket is from Northwestern California. The beargrass design is typical of tobacco baskets from Northwest California.
Donor:
John Preston Stanley, Philip Mills Jones, and Phoebe Apperson Hearst
Collection place:
Northwestern California
Verbatim coll. place:
California
Culture or time period:
Klamath River Tribes
Collector:
John Preston Stanley and Philip Mills Jones
Collection date:
1900-1901
Taxon:
Xerophyllum tenax
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Tobacco baskets
Function:
5.5 Stimulants, Narcotics, and Accessories
Accession date:
August 1901
Context of use:
Used to store tobacco. Collector's notebook identifies this specimen as "Klamath Tobacco Bags".
Department:
Native California (archaeology and ethnology)
Dimensions:
width 14.5 centimeters and height 12.1 centimeters