That’s a prized combination in the collectibles market these days, as prices for everything from old books to Elvis plates have settled down at levels far below 1980s highs. Some of the green glow surrounding baskets is attributable to a Southwestern marketing fervor (Santa Fe, N.M., was the fastest-growing U.S. vacation spot last year). But the baskets also have a practical grace that seems to transform the ordinary vessels into sculpture.
Like the finest statues, the beauty of these baskets comes from intricate, time-consuming craftsmanship. Richly colored Mission Indian weaves from around 1850 were made with a collection of reeds and grasses that took months to gather and treat. The weavers, almost exclusively women, picked plants according to a precise schedule and then wound the stems, fiber by fiber. into durable, seamless baskets. Some of the coiled baskets are wound so well that, 150 years later, they are still watertight.
Though thousands of Native American baskets are traded in commercial auctions and private sales, only a couple of weavers command the highest prices, and little of that money drifts back to the weavers’ tribes. Gently elegant baskets by Dat so la lee, a Washoe Indian weaver who worked during the late 1800s in Nevada, now sell for upwards of $250,000. But because most of those sales are among private collectors, the profits remain with the sellers. Tribes like the Apache and Navajo are trying to get museums and auction houses to share commissions from art sales, but so far they’ve had little success. “Would the owners of the auction house start sending proceeds from French impressionist paintings back to France?” asks Haas. “But thoughtful, nonIndian collectors help the tribes in other important ways.”
One benefit has been a boost in demand for smaller, less expensive baskets. For as little as $200, eager amateurs can acquire baskets that evoke all of the romance and history of their more expensive cousins. An Apache pictorial basket up for auction at Butterfield & Butterfield this week features rounded sides woven with alternating panels 0 delicate human and animal figures. The fist-size basket, likely made for trade or sale, hints at the most moving Native American themes–man and nature linked in a constant circle–and will probably sell for under $500. And even if none of that cash ends up in the hands of the original tribes, the baskets may earn something equally valuable–a shared respect for Indian culture and nature.
