Washoe Polychrome Basket Bowl by Tootsie Dick Sam (Washoe, 1855-1929)

Abe and Amy Cohn, Cohn’s Emporium, Carson City, Nevada

Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above circa 1930

Sotheby’s, New York, September 25-26, 1990, lot 137, consigned by the above

Jean Stein, New York, acquired at the above auction

Tootsie Dick Sam (1855 - 1929) was one of the most skilled Washoe basket weavers of her generation. Working in the Great Basin on the border of present-day northern California and Nevada, Tootsie Dick Sam created finely woven degikup with abstract motifs such as the present work. Like many Washoe weavers of her generation, she sold her works through Abe and Amy Cohn’s Emporium Company in Carson City, Nevada. The Cohns held Tootsie Dick Sam’s creations in great esteem. As Dr Marvin Cohodas writes, “Tootsie Dick rose to special prominence as the Cohns’ second great protégé [...] it appears that Cohn was grooming Tootsie to become Louisa Keyser’s successor” (Marvin Cohodas, “Washoe Basketry”, American Indian Basketry and Other Native Arts, Vol. III, No. 12, July 1983, p. 8; Dat So La Lee, or Louisa Keyser, was the great Washoe weaver credited with developing the degikup form in the late 1890s).

Washoe degikup baskets were woven primarily from the shoots of willow trees, which grew along waterways and were gathered in late autumn. To achieve contrast in color for the design motifs, the willow bark was peeled or sunbaked; at times, other plant materials such as redbud or bracken fern were used instead.

The basket was identified by Dr Marvin Cohodas as woven by "Tootsie Dick Sam, made between 1916 and 1918" in a letter written to the previous owner mentioned in the 1990 Sotheby's catalogue.