Jicarilla Apache Large Utilitarian Basket with Ducks [SOLD]

This exquisite basket from a member of the Jicarilla Apache tribe in northern New Mexico is filled with colorful ducks walking around the sidewalls.  The basket was woven in the traditional style of the Jicarilla as well as excessively large as many of their functional ones were made.  Jicarilla baskets were made with three to five rods for the foundation—providing a strong and sturdy basket.  All Jicarilla baskets are of coil weave with a braided rim.  Stitching is straight up and down.

The design on the basket wall, both interior and exterior, consists of five large colorful ducks, all walking in the same direction.  The ducks were made in colors of black, green, red, purple, and brown.  As usual, there is some fading of the colors.  The Jicarilla basket makers use commercial dyes for designs and those colors generally faded over the years from constant abrasion while in use and from sun fading when exposed.

The Jicarilla women made baskets of this scale for their own use in their daily household chores.  The Jicarilla Apache Reservation is in the northern part of central New Mexico. The name Jicarilla comes from the Spanish word for “little basket.” When the Spaniards arrived, in what is now New Mexico, they were impressed by the small pitch-covered baskets which the Jicarilla used for holding drinking water. These small baskets were tightly woven and covered with piñon pitch to make them waterproof.

Fine basket weaving had been a Jicarilla tradition for centuries, but the quality and beauty of the baskets were not well-recognized until the 1950s, when traders of the area began to enter the baskets in the Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial.

Condition: very good condition with some fading of colors

Provenance: this Jicarilla Apache Large Utilitarian Basket with Ducks is from the collection of a gentleman from California

Reference: Apache Indian Baskets by Clara Lee Tanner

TAGS: Native American Baskets, Apache, American Indians