basket, trinket

basket, trinket

basket, trinket

sompochee

2: FURNISHINGS

HOUSEHOLD ACCESORY

Seminole

Multicolored, round lidded, handled basket with doll head on top

Multicolored, round lidded, handled basket with doll head on top. Flat baes constructed of palmetto bark fiber. Sides constructed of open coiled sweetgrass stitched together. Sides bow out from bottom, then are straight, the bow back towards rim to create flat top. Two handles, locate don opposite sides at the point where the straight sides come into make the flat top, are made of a single sweetgrass coil integrated into the construction. The handles are sweetgrass coil integrated into the construction. The handles are sweetgrass coil integrated into the construction. the handles are wrapped with green thread. The coils are sewn together with decorative stitching that creates continuous vertical line about 1/2” apart sides oft he basket with short, upright pointing diagonal lines (about 3/8” long) that come off to the left of the vertical lines from the bottom to the top of each coil (about 1/4” in diameter). The pink thread is faded on exterior of basket. The rim is just the top sweetgrass coil The top coil concludes with a gentle taper that produces seamless ending. The stitch length of the diagonal lines is somewhat uneven. The lid is constructed of a flat disk of coiled sweetgrass sewn with the same pattern of stitching as the basket, but the diagonal lines point down and tot he right. The four outer coils are sewn with orange thread and the three inner coils with black. A thin piece of split palmetto stem is sewn on the underside of the lid, to fit inside the basket rim with overcast yellow stitching. each stitch catches a few fibers of the next coil above. A women’s doll head is sewn in the middle of the lid, fitting into a hole in the center of the coils. It is approximate 1 1/2” tall and 2” wide. The body of the head is constructed of palmetto fiber. It has 3 rows of blue glass beads around its neck and black cloth formed, probably over cardboard, to look like an elaborate women’s Seminole hairstyle. A red mouth and black and white eyes are embroidered on the palmetto bark face. The bottom of the doll’s head can be seen coming through the underside, probably over cardboard.

created for sale to tourists, outsiders /
decorative

6.25” W

4”D

3.75” H

1951 1955 own/col

fiber(palmetto bark) cloth(cotton or cotton-blend) glass cardboard fiber(palmetto stem)

coiled sewn

bead embroid

Seminole

VGOOD faded

Davis, Hilda J. -donation

Davis, Hilda J. anthropological/ethnological
field

1984-06-0002

object

FL

USA

NA

2009 RECAT: Jodine Perkins

2009 RECAT: Pink thread is faded on exterior of basket

2009 RECAT: Mowat 1992 p. 9 (see 1984-06-0001)
Downs 1997 p. 198-99 (see 1984-06-0001)

Indiana University/Mathers Museum