Coiled Cooking Basket (Bush-ku) with mountain quail topknot design (wash-wash-ka)
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Object Label
This cooking basket is decorated with a motif of a mountain quail’s head plume, which was Amanda Wilson’s best-known design. The weaver may have favored it because her Native name (Oymutnee) means “the sound made by a quail.” The mountain quail, which inhabits the foothills and mountains west of the Rocky Mountains, has a very distinctive, thin double plume on its head. In addition to being an accomplished basket weaver, Wilson was an important leader in the Maidu women’s dance society.
Caption
Amanda Wilson (Maidu, ca. 1860–1946). Coiled Cooking Basket (Bush-ku) with mountain quail topknot design (wash-wash-ka), ca. 1908. Sedge root, split redbud shoots, willow rods, 7 x 15 in. (18.5 x 38.0 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1908, Museum Collection Fund, 08.491.8683.
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Maker
Title
Coiled Cooking Basket (Bush-ku) with mountain quail topknot design (wash-wash-ka)
Date
ca. 1908
Medium
Sedge root, split redbud shoots, willow rods
Classification
Dimensions
7 x 15 in. (18.5 x 38.0 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Expedition 1908, Museum Collection Fund
Accession Number
08.491.8683
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
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