Degikup Basket
Arts of the Americas
On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Radical Care
About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
For countless generations, Indigenous artists have lived with, studied, and experimented with local plants to produce beautiful belongings. This degikup basket was crafted by one of the most acclaimed basketweavers of all time: Louisa Keyser (Washoe). Keyser used the local materials bracken fern root and redbud to create the basket’s decorative motif, which has been described as “hunting in the harvest time.” The vertical shoots depict grain ready to be harvested, while the triangular shapes at their tops represent arrow points.
Though Washoe people have created baskets for countless generations, Keyser was incredibly innovative and pioneered the degikup form. Weaving from the bottom up, she utilized a coiling technique in which she wrapped locally harvested willow threads around willow rods to create the item’s circular form, with its narrow base, wide center, and tapered top. Baskets such as Keyser’s reflect the ways artists embraced and elaborated upon their people’s creative traditions to manifest beauty in the world.
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
For countless generations, Indigenous artists have lived with, studied, and experimented with local plants to produce beautiful belongings. This degikup basket was crafted by one of the most acclaimed basketweavers of all time: Louisa Keyser (Washoe). Keyser used the local materials bracken fern root and redbud to create the basket’s decorative motif, which has been described as “hunting in the harvest time.” The vertical shoots depict grain ready to be harvested, while the triangular shapes at their tops represent arrow points.
Though Washoe people have created baskets for countless generations, Keyser was incredibly innovative and pioneered the degikup form. Weaving from the bottom up, she utilized a coiling technique in which she wrapped locally harvested willow threads around willow rods to create the item’s circular form, with its narrow base, wide center, and tapered top. Baskets such as Keyser’s reflect the ways artists embraced and elaborated upon their people’s creative traditions to manifest beauty in the world.
MEDIUM
Willow, bracken fern root, red-bud
DATES
1900
DIMENSIONS
8 x 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (20.3 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER
72.5.2
CREDIT LINE
By exchange
PROVENANCE
December 20, 1900, sold at The Emporium Company, Carson City, NV; between 1900 and 1971, provenance not yet documented; before 1925, possibly acquired by George Gill Green; November 19, 1971, purchased at Sotheby's, New York, NY, "Green Collection of American Indian Art", lot 137, by James Economos; January 18, 1972, purchased from James Economos by the Brooklyn Museum, by exchange.
Provenance FAQ
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Coiled vessel of slightly elongated globular form and woven in shades of brown with arrowhead and grain motifs depicting "Hunting in the Harvest Time". There are twenty-nine stitches to the inch. This is called a degikup basket a larger basket that curves towards the top and totally covered by the design a spherical, non-utilitarian basket produced by the technique of coiling.- and totally covered by the design a style Dat So La Lee (Louisa Keyser) invented.
The primary basketry material is willow (Salix spp.), which is used to create the rods (warp) and the threads (weft). Bracken fern (Pteris aquilinium) and red bud (Cercis occidentalis) are the two primary materials used for the red and black decorative elements; both are processed into thread, which is spliced into the willow threads to create patterns on the light willow background. The three-rod technique, the form used originally and predominantly by the weavers of this period for the degikup, uses three willow stems to form the coils, which are curved along the horizontal plane and then sewn together with thread to create vertical height. Later artists switched to a one-rod technique, which produces a basket of somewhat less sculptural depth. The one-rod technique is less difficult and time intensive to produce, although not easy or quick by any means. The switch in styles reflected a response to the demands of the market.
The provenance on this basket is definite (see provenance section). It is done in a style used for her major works between 1898 and 1916, involving a round shape, fine stitching (around 30 stitches per inch and either scattered or vertically arranged patterns of small design units.
The arrow like forms are ripe grain, ripe harvest. the points on the end are arrow points for hunting.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Radical Care
CAPTION
Louisa Keyser (Dat So La Lee) (Washoe, 1850â1925). Degikup Basket, 1900. Willow, bracken fern root, red-bud, 8 x 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (20.3 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 72.5.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 72.5.2_PS2.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 72.5.2_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2011
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply.
Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply).
For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch.
For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright.
If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
