Hupa Hopper Basket - Late 19th Century 5 1/2" x 15 1/2"

Description

Offered by
Antique American Indian Art, llc
---  AAIA ---
Fine Northern California Vintage Native Basketry
Hupa Hopper Basket
late 19th century
5 1/2" x 15 1/2"
A rare item in excellent condition.
Acorns were traditionally ground with a stone mortar and pestle to make flour. The basketry hopper was used to keep the flour from spilling out of the mortar and was sometimes attached to the mortar with pitch.
The flour was then cooked into mush.
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Mush made from acorn meal was cooked and served in basketry bowls. Acorns were ground into flour, then mixed with water, and hot stones were dropped into the basket to cook the mush. As they cooled, the stones were removed and more were added. They were stirred to keep them from burning the bottom of the basket.
Excellent Condition; Minor wear as pictured.
180816-064
Northwest:
This region includes the Coastal ranges and Klamath Mountains.  From the coast, the native population inhabited the redwoods and coastal forests, mountains and valleys and along the rivers including the Eel, Mad, and Klamath rivers. The tribes of this region that we focus on are the coastal Yurok, the northern Karuk and the Hupa Group peoples primarily of the Hoopa Valley (south of the Karuk), which include the Hupa, Chilula and Whilkut. For the most part, the basketry motifs are woven using a
half-twist overlay technique
.
Basketry Identifying Characteristics
The Western tribes used half-twist overlay and the Eastern tribes used full-twist overlay in their motif.  Eastern tribes baskets tend to be taller-sided and more simply designed than the Western tribes' baskets by using
isolated motif elements, although this is not always
the case.
Generally speaking, the Hupa and Chilula make extensive use of the light colored bear grass against the natural brown conifer root, with only modest use of the black and even less red colors in their overlay.
Whilkut baskets, in addition to having both full and half-twist overlay, are generally more colorful, through the use of the red alder dyed or black fern stem.
Yurok basketry is similar to the Hupa in form and technique, using the half-twist overlay and the same warp and weft materials, but the Yurok normally make much greater use of the black maidenhair fern creating denser black patterns; their work is very fine and their variety of forms is extensive.
Karok basketry is of half twist like the Hupa and Yurok, but
make the most extensive use of red alder dyed fern stem
, especially in the field.
150106-04
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