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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;2manybooks, post: 4557512, member: 8267&quot;]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&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>In reviewing my copy of <u>Legend of the Bushwhacker Basket</u>, by Martha Wetherbee and Nathan Taylor, they describe this difference. Referring to the Taghkanic style:</p><p>&quot;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&#039;t see a Taghkanic round bottom that isn&#039;t like this.&quot; So, that feature and the rim treatment argue against Michelle&#039;s basket being a Taghkanic.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I am not saying I am convinced that Michelle&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>Just for reference: A 19th century hex-weave basket identified as Penobscot, in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College:</p><p><a href="https://www.naaer.hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/northeast-woodlands/tools-technology/work-2" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.naaer.hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/northeast-woodlands/tools-technology/work-2" rel="nofollow">https://www.naaer.hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/northeast-woodlands/tools-technology/work-2</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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