Basket

The object is a three-rod Washoe basket (degikup) with designs in bracken fern on a willow ground may be attributed to Agnes May Pete of Carson Valley. Her style includes the use of multiple, linear, all-black design motiffs, a fairly vertical basket wall, diagonal finishing stitch, and non-interlocked stitching. Some baskets made by Agnes May Pete passed through the hands of Abe Cohn (Cohn's Emporium in Carson City, Nevada). The Emporium was the conduit for the work of many known Washoe basket weavers in the late 19th/early 20th century in response to the growing popularity of the Lake Tahoe area as a tourist destination. In his writings about Washoe basketry, Marvin Cohodas, Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, calls the period between 1895-1935 the time of Washoe "fancy basketry."