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TEACHER OF ORTHOGENIC CLASS, KENDERTON SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA
WEAVING BEGUN——MATS, BORDERS, SMALL BASKETS (MODELS 1-9) 37
33. BOWL SHAPED BASKET WITH FLARED TOP 83
35. LARGE GREEN FUNNEL SHAPED HANGING BASKET 85
44. NO. 1 OVAL FLOWER BASKET WITH ROUND BASE 99
45. NO. 2 OVAL FLOWER BASKET (GREEN AND BROWN) 100
68. SMALL SCRAP BASKET (CHECKER DESIGN) 133
69. LARGE SCRAP BASKET (CHECKER DESIGN) 134
Basketry is one of the oldest and most valuable of the crafts. As far back as the time of the Israelites we read of its usefulness in offering sacrifices. Of necessity it was born, and in its infancy was made into simple forms, but very soon its importance to man was so duly felt and appreciated that new forms took shape, and its uses were so extended that the early basket makers vied with one another in producing pleasing work and in discovering new and various kinds of materials to put into it.
Though the Chinese and Japanese have sent us, for long years, marvelous things of beauty, it is to our American Indian that we owe our debt for beauty and artistry of this industry; for industry it is.
It seems quite impossible to me to write on basketry without mentioning the Indian and his connection with it, for we can very safely call him the master artist of basket work. In its history, and a romantic one it is, the Indian figures first and last. The Indian woman was never satisfied with the materials just at hand; she sought for and tried all kinds, in season and out of season, and she chose, unerringly, the best. Her patience was without limit in her experiments in materials, dyes and weaves, with the result that her basketry is the peer of any in the world. Her sample work was nature——and into every line of her basket she wove a meaning symbolical of something in particular.