Native American baskets of the Pacific Northwest Coast are my very favorite baskets of all, woven of bear grass, with cedar bark around the lip and plated into the bottom, and often featuring figurative imagery relating to whaling, as is the case with this small one from the Makah Tribe of the Northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, with three whales circling around the perimeter. The design on the lid suggests both rays of sun and also I think nods to a line of rowers in a whaling ship. Lovely.
2 7/8" in diameter x 1 3/4" tall. c. 1920s-30s I believe and in very good condition.
