Dublin Core
Title
basket
Object
basket
Native Name
sompochee
Nomenclature Category
2: FURNISHINGS
Nomenclature Classification Term
HOUSEHOLD ACCESSORY
Culture
Seminole
Brief Description
Multicolored round lidded basket with doll head on top
Description
Multicolored round lidded basket with doll head on top. Flat base constructed of palmetto bark. Sides constructed of open coiled sweetgrass stitched together. Sides bow out from bottom, then are straight, then bow back towards rim to create flat top. Two handles, located on opposite sides at the point where the straight sides come in to make the flat top, are made of a single sweetgrass coil integrated into the construction. The handles are wrapped with light blue-grey thread, which is the same color thread as the joining coil. The coils are sewn together with decorative stitching that creates continuous vertical lines about 1 1/2” apart up the sides of the basket with short, upright-pointing diagonal line s(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” diameter). Each stitch catches a few fibers of the next coil above. The bottom eleven coils are stitched with brown and the top five coils are stitched with light blue-grey. The rim is just the top sweetgrass coil. The top coil concludes with gentle taper that produces an almost seamless ending. The stitching length of the diagonal line 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 end to the right. The three outer coils are sewn with orange thread and the inner coils with black thread. A thin piece of split palmetto stem is on the underside of the lid, to fit inside the basket rim, with overcast light blue-grey stitching. 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 approximately 1 3/4” tall and 1 3/4” wide. The body of the head is constructed of palmetto fiber. It has 4 rows of red 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 of the lid.
Use
created for sale to tourists, outsiders /
decorative
decorative
Dimension 1
5.5” W
Dimension 2
3.5” D
Dimension 3
3.75” H
Object Date
1951 1955 own/col
Material
fiber(sweetgrass) bark(palmetto) fiber(cotton or cotton-blend) glass cardboard? fiber(palmetto stem)
Construction
coiled sewn
Decoration
bead embroid
Maker Culture
Seminole
Condition
EXCEL
Source
Davis, Hilda J. -donation
Collector
Davis, Hilda J. anthropological/ethnological
field
field
Accession Number
1984-06-0003
Type
object
State
FL
Country
USA
Continent
NA
Cataloging History
2009 RECAT: Jodine Perkins
Curatorial/Cataloger Comments
2009 RECAT:
Cataloging: Consulted References
2009 RECAT: Mowat 1992 p 9 (see 1904-06-0001)
Downs 1997 p. 198-99 (see 1984-06-0001)
Downs 1997 p. 198-99 (see 1984-06-0001)
Rights Holder
Indiana University/Mathers Museum