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Alaskan Tribe

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	Aleut woven western style hat native basketry 1890 Code D 5 x 11 x 11.5 (in) baskets

Price Codes

Currency: Canadian Dollars

Code A

Below $1,000

Code B

$1,000 - $2,500

Code C

$2,500 - $5,000

Code D

$5,000 - $10,000

Code E

$10,000 - $20,000

Code F

$20,000 - $30,000

Code G

$30,000 - $50,000

Code H

$50,000 - $75,000

Code I

$75,000 - $999,999

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The Prices paid for all sold works are confidential. For Priceing details please call us at (250) 537-2421.

Grass baskets woven on the remote Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea are among the finest in the world of basketry. There the short, fine rye beach grass (Elymus mollis) grows.Traditional technique results in tightly woven pieces as fine as linen. The only tool used is a sharp fingernail to continually split a blade of grass into finer and finer strips until nearly as thin a thread of linen. It takes three to six months to complete a basket working three to four hours a day.

For centuries, the Aleut baskets were prized possessions and a valuable trading commodity between native islanders and Russian traders. For trade, the Aleuts wove a vast array of items, including sliding cigarette cases and intricate baskets smaller than a thimble. The baskets are still highly valued and featured in museums and art collections around the world.Today there are only three or four traditional Aleut grass basket weavers left.

Decorative features are often colourful flowers or tiny designs sewn in vertical patterns using Russian Silk, so called because the Aleuts traded with the Russians to procured it from Asia.

Southern Alaskan baskets are often wrapped coil and decorated with bright green or blue beadwork. These are quite unusual and very attractive.

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