Basketry Item Number: 3552/3 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Glass bottle covered with basketry. The basketry pattern has six bands of different types of weaving. The base is plain cedar bark; the bottom outer band is woven grass with red borders and a canoe image on both sides; next is a looser band of cedar weaving with a diagonal pattern (partly transparent), then a wider central grass band with an image similar to the BC Coat of Arms in the centre (shield-like shape between an elk and bighorn sheep, standing at sides) on one side, also with red borders. The other side appears to be a wolf headdress; then another loose cedar bark band; then another grass band with a canoe design on both sides, red borders, and two ducks on the short sides. There are 7 curved lines going up each shoulder; with the basketry ending midwayup the neck of the bottle (clear glass above). The bottle itself is somewhat oval, with flattened faces and rounded sides; the shoulders angle in sharply to a narrow neck (no lid).
Collected sometime in the 1920s or 1930s by the donors' grandfather, William Mathews, during his steamship travels on the BC coast.