The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Museum Purchase: Helen Thurston Ayer Fund.

Small basket and lid with a very fine wrapped coil weave. Basket (part a) is rounded and slightly oblong, with vertically straight sides. Four crosses are woven into the pattern in dyed blue-green grass fibre. The rim is of the same colour. The lid is also rounded and oblong, with an inset lower lip that fits snuggly inside the rim of the basket. A braided grass tie attaches the round woven handle to the centre. Four green crosses are woven into the lid.

Gift of John D. Gray.

Gift of the Delphine Lass Kreielsheimer Estate.

Gift of Myrtle Dietsche Fisher.

Western Apache includes the Cibecue, San Carlos, White Mountain, and Northern and Southern Tonto Apache groups who live in what is now Arizona. Many baskets from these peoples are simply identified as Western Apache, due to the difficulty of distinguishing between them stylistically. These peoples used twining exclusively when making large burden baskets. All other baskets, from shallow bowls to deep jars, are made by coiling. Coiled baskets are always decorated with boldly executed black designs against a white or tan background. The use of red - obtained from yucca root - as an accent color began after 1900 in an effort to increase the market value of the baskets to non-Native buyers. The most common type of design on bowls such as this one radiates from the center of the basket to the rim, often with figurative elements between the radiating lines.