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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

Guichon Design Box with Foot, Lid and Handles

Design Description

Main design: Referred to as a "Guichon" design due to Teit’s Coiled Basketry of British Columbia and Surrounding Region (1); Guichon is composed of an intricate interlocking geometric design; base is a square standing on its bottom point; overlaid by a square standing on its flat base. Both are overlaid by an interlocking weave design, somewhat similar to the knotted weave on a Celtic Cross; colours are red, white and black. The outer base square is checkered in the way that some of the chevrons on other baskets are made; each corner begins with a black tip and outline, followed with white, and then red. The inner square is made of bands of three colours; the first band is outlined in black, with a centre band of white and an inner band of red. The interlocking weave is composed of four ribbons, each of which has black on the outer edge, white in the middle and red on the inside.

Outer edges and lid designs: Bottom of the basket on top of the foot has a beaded design composed of alternating colours (red, white, black, white, red, white, etc.); top edge of the basket below the rim has a zig-zag design composed of three bands of different colours: red on the bottom, white in the middle and black on top.

The lid of basket has a similar zig-zag design composed of two lines (which are slightly curved rather than straight), one inside the other, radiating outward from the centre; outer rim has a double-beaded design similar to the foot, except that each bead is offset by one space to the one of the same colour adjoining it.

Length

34 cm

Width

34.5 cm

Height

23.5 cm

Shape and Use

Square box shape, medium depth; flat lid with a small handle in the centre; basket was likely used for storage or carrying light objects (similar to a picnic basket).

Weave

Coiled bundled; imbricated. Handles are made of bundled coils.

Materials

Split cedar root; inner bark of the chokecherry (naturally red, dyed black); bear grass (sun-bleached white); deer hide top and small handles are coiled—could be the same for large handles, which are attached with hide.

Culture

N'laka'pamux, possibly from the Merritt/Nicola area

History

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

Notes:

Boas, Franz, ed., Haeberlin, H.K., Teit, James, Roberts, Helen. "Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region." Forty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1919-1924, Washington, DC 1928, pp. 119-484.