Native American Mono Basket, California
A large Mono twined burden basket, central California, circa 1900. A large conical receptacle woven diagonally, latent parallel bands making up weave, with a distinct zig zag near the overcast rim. There are two small breaks in the rim, and there is a native use damage (small portion missing) to the tip of the cone, and there is considerable fragility due to age. These large burden (work) baskets were usually overlooked by early collectors and must now be considered rare. This basket comes from an early collection put together by the Wright family, for whom the town of Wrightwood California is named, at the turn of the century. The attached photograph dated June 5, 1905 shows this very same (enormous) Mono basket mounted on the back of the Wright's wagon, as purchased during the family's trip to Yosemite.
Height: 63 cm / 25 in
Width: 61 cm / 24 in