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• Introduction
• The N'laka'pamux Territory
• About N'laka'pamux Basketry
  and the work of James Alexander Teit (1864-1922)
• The Pearson Basket Collection at the LCM
  • The Baskets
  • The Collection
• N'laka'pamux Basketry Making Today
• Conservation of the Baskets
• N'laka'pamux Basket Makers
• Glossary of Terms
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements

Three-Flower Spray Basket

Design Description

Basket has three distinct James-style flowers. The top two are joined by tendrils to the bottom one. Each flower has eight petals, or four double petals. Each double petal has one tendril leading from its centremost point, plus each outermost (to the basket) has one tendril leading out from it. The top left flower is red and white, with five tendrils extending from it. Each tendril contains a white spot inside the bud point; all tendrils are red except the bottom tendril furthest left, which is black.

The top right flower is black and white with five tendrils extending from it. Each tendril contains a white spoit inside its bud point; all tendrils are black except the middle tendril on the bottom which is red. Each of the top two flowers has a bottom tendril which connects to a black and white flower with no tendrils at the bottom of the basket.

Each end of basket has two red and white flowers, one above the other; each bottom flower has two tendrils, one black (right), and one red (left). Tendrils at the ends of the basket have no white spoit inside their bud points.

Length

35 cm

Width

50.5 cm

Height

32.5 cm

Shape and Use

General storage; rectangular and deep; flared from bottom to top; does not appear to a "burden" or "berry basket," as it has no handles, handle holes, or tumpline attachments.

Weave

Coiled bundled; imbricated.

Materials

Split cedar root; inner bark of the chokecherry, (naturally red; dyed black); bear grass (sun-bleached white).

Culture

N'laka'pamux, North Bend.

History

Donor: Mrs. Aida Freeman; collected by her mother Mrs. Kathleen Edith Pearson Southwell.

Notes:

This is the basket which began the whole chain of events that led to this project. It is the one that former curator Lisa Codd first spotted in the Mary Ann James photo in 2004.