Degikup Basket
Brooklyn Museum photograph
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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.
Caption
Louisa Keyser (Dat So La Lee) Washoe, 1850–1925. 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)
Tags
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Degikup Basket
Date
1900
Geography
Place made: Nevada, United States
Medium
Willow, bracken fern root, red-bud
Classification
Dimensions
8 x 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (20.3 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm)
Credit Line
By exchange
Accession Number
72.5.2
Rights
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.
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