Chumash Polychrome Treasure Basket

Bob Adams, Tucson, Arizona

American Private Collection, acquired from the above on February 23, 2011

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, long-term loan, October 2013 - July 2016

Early Chumash basketry is exceptionally rare, and this globular storage basket is a tour-de-force in three contrasting colors, and remains in an excellent state of preservation, with tight stitching and a crisp and elaborate geometric design. Chumash baskets of comparable form and style are in the Museo de América, Madrid (inv. no. 13880), and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles (inv. no. 811.G.1708). A related treasure basket supporting the antiquity of the style was collected at Santa Barbara by George Goodman Hewett during George Vancouver's voyage to Hawaii and the American coast between 1791-1795, and is today in the British Museum, London (inv. no. VAN 185).