Lovely Small Antique NW Coast Native Basket with Geometric Pattern American Text Book for Letters working at making chairs it

working at making chairs it appears

filled in one direction with very fine paper full page weavings using colored paper strips for wefts woven through white paper warps

and a sliding lid that fits just right and slides easily

6" wide x 5 3/4" t x 5/8" d and signed (carved) with the initials MT on reverse

and date '82 to the right of signature

Lovely Small Antique NW Coast Native Basket with Geometric Pattern American Text Book for Letters working at making chairs itMy photos do no justice to this one the colors of the triangles, particularly, are both subtler and more luminous than comes across, and the scale of the basket is quite small, with the weave of that grass is very tight and fine. The geometric decoration on it, also suggesting mountains, makes me think Tlingit, but I am not completely sure, certainly it bears a close resemblance to Macah Nootka baskets too; NW Coast in any case. And surely it once had