Gift Bowl (c. 1895): Art, History and Details

Gift Bowl (c. 1895) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

To allow spirits to circulate freely in a basket, some California weavers provide a spirit door: an intentional design irregularity that can be as subtle as a tiny break in a stitch or as obvious as a feather or a bead of a different color. The single green bead in this superb gift basket may be such a portal.

Object facts

• Title: Gift Bowl
• Date: c. 1895
• Culture: California, Wappo, late 19th- early 20th century
• Type: Basketry
• Technique: willow, sedge, with beads; coiled (1 rod)
• Dimensions: Overall: 6 x 13 cm (2 3/8 x 5 1/8 in.)
• Collection: AA - Native North America
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1917.403

Collection credit

Presented by William Albert Price in memory of Mrs. William Albert Price

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 4 (1917): 64-67.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.