Looking for How Old and Who made it - a fresh start

Splint wood?
Split Oak?
Possibly Canterbury, NH?
Sewing basket?
2 pockets (shaker?)
11” diameter
4” height
1” handle height
Age:?
Tribe or Group:?
Purchased in Maine
Writing on the bottom -- Rogers #18
Two ear steam-bent handles are attached to the inside. Both smooth and hardwood.
Lashing holds two small implement baskets along the interior of the rim. Both baskets inside are open hexagonal.
Raised base with split upright in the center.






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Welcome Michelle!
You should edit your title to include the word "basket" so the proper people take a look at your inquiry.

 

Ahhh of course
Thank You

 

@komokwa replied regarding this basket on your first posting of it (https://www.antiquers.com/threads/3-baskets.73331/).

So, likely black ash wood splints. He might have more to say about it.

The hex weave in the little side pockets is, I think, less common. I usually associate the technique with Asian basketry, although not exclusively. I found one other example of a somewhat similar basket with side pockets. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the description.


https://picclick.com/Antique-Woven-Splint-Gathering-Berry-Flower-Basket-Side-192557845935.html

 

This example is published in Baskets, by Nancy Schiffer & J.M. Adovasio, Schiffer Publishing, 2001. It is identified as a sewing basket, made by Algonquin Indians. Note, however, that the base of the main basket is made using simple checker weave, rather that the spoked construction of your basket. The description refers to "curly fancy weaving" on the sides (which are not shown), which would be more characteristic of Native American baskets. The handles are also different from yours.

 

Friendship Basket, Bushwhacker
Fruit Basket Form, Small Size
Taghkanic
Date/Period: Late 19th to very early 20th century

https://www.aaawt.com/html/gallery37.html

I draw your attention to the photo of the inside and outside of the base of this Taconic , western NY State basket...( scroll down halfway, or so )....just for comparison to the pics Michelle has provided..

I'm not ready to say the OP's basket is pure Taconic.........but the base is so similar as to suggest at least a hybrid ...

 

I considered bushwhacker/Taghkanic baskets, which have that distinctive pushed up base. But the rim treatment is quite different. The Taghkanic baskets have thicker rims, with reinforcing hoops both inside and outside the staves, and crisscross lashing. Michelle's basket has only a single hoop on the inside, and a single diagonal lashing.

https://www.themagazineantiques.com/article/taghkanic-baskets-folk-art/

I have also found some references to the hexagonal weave being used by some Native American basket makers (Seneca & Mohawk), comparing it to the weave used when making snowshoes. In a 1941 publication by Marjorie Lismer, Seneca Splint Basketry, she notes that only a few of the older basket makers still knew how to do the hexagonal weave.

There is the possibility that the main basket and the hexagonal weave inserts are a marriage, made by different weavers. It would be interesting to see closeups of where the side pockets are attached, to see how well they are incorporated.

At any rate, my best guess would be that Michelle's basket was made in the northeast, somewhere between New York and Maine, probably by a basket maker of European descent, but perhaps with influence from neighboring Native American traditions, dating to the late 19th - early 20th century.

 

yes indeed that double rim, with the cross twist lashing on the rim..

but...
the distinctive base weave with it's centre round hold together weave where the basket starts must also be taken into account.

American Baskets by Shaw, states that Taconic weavers always used the double twist lashing on the basket rim...

but on page 138 they show a family of graduated baskets....where one has only a single wrap on the rim...???

They also show Shaker baskets , that use the open weave , present on the extra side baskets that we're seeing on the OP's basket.

I'm just not seeing any native connection..........but will concede that the small extra woven pocket may have been influenced by noticing native baskets from the same area.

So, without definitive attribution....I'm willing to go with a marriage of styles !

 

Thanks for putting the two bases side by side. They do look similar, but looking more closely I see a significant difference in technique. In the Bushwhacker/ Taghkanic basket the spokes are individually shaped, tapering down to the middle and then widening out again. The spokes on Michelle's basket are shaped similarly, except that that they are also split when approaching the edge, to create twice as many spokes that will be turned up to form the sides of the basket.

In reviewing my copy of Legend of the Bushwhacker Basket, by Martha Wetherbee and Nathan Taylor, they describe this difference. Referring to the Taghkanic style:
"Note how the uprights taper in as wedges toward the center, cross the center in one even narrow width, and then taper out again as wedges. This manner of laying a bottom is not limited to the Taghkanics, but you won't see a Taghkanic round bottom that isn't like this." So, that feature and the rim treatment argue against Michelle's basket being a Taghkanic.

They describe the use of split spokes as a feature of Native American basketwork, and that it was adopted by other non-Native basketmakers as well.

I am not saying I am convinced that Michelle's basket is Native American. It is just really difficult to attribute splint baskets unless they have more diagnostic features. The fact that it is signed on the bottom might support the idea of a non-Native maker, however.

Just for reference: A 19th century hex-weave basket identified as Penobscot, in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College:
https://www.naaer.hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/northeast-woodlands/tools-technology/work-2

 

I need to use my laptop to change the title. I can’t figure out how to do it on my phone.

 

it's too late now anyways....u only get a couple of hours to change it..