Miniature Pima Basket with Turtle Design [SOLD]

The Akimel O´odham River People (Pima) of Arizona were major basket makers in the late 19th century, primarily making them for their own use.  At the turn of the century, basket weaving was being practiced in every home.  This continued into the early 20th century, at which time Southwest Indian basketry became a collectible commodity.  The problem was that the collectors and dealers only paid $1.00 to $3.00 for a basket.  The women soon realized that it was not practical to spend weeks making a basket when they could pick cotton and earn $2.00 a day.  By the 1920s, basket weaving all but disappeared.  By 1960, they were not even making baskets for their own use.  They had, by then, substituted commercially made pots and pans for utilitarian use.

Many basket makers fulfilled the commercial need for miniature baskets for miniature collectors and for miniature doll houses.  This small basket, about the size of a United States 25 cent coin, was designed with a turtle as the sole element.  The turtle was designed using the black Devil’s claw wild plant.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: from a former resident of Kansas City, MO who collected miniature baskets in the 1960s.

Recommended Reading:  Transitions in Transition—Contemporary Basket Weaving of the Southwestern Indians by Barbara Mauldin