Object Details
- Label Text
- Kongo tightly woven lidded baskets could have a number of household storage uses. They were also used as containers for ritual materials such as the medicines that were part of minkisi, the spirit containers that healed the sick or hunted and punished wrongdoers. In the colonial era, Kongo lidded baskets were popular with foreigners--fitted with cloth, waxed and polished and used as sewing baskets.
- Description
- Oval lidded basket with a flat top and overstitched pattern in darker fiber of triangles and chevrons.
- Provenance
- Jill DeMattos, collected Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1979-1983 to 1994
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Kongo artist
- Date
- 20th century
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase
- Medium
- Plant fiber
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 8.9 x 20.4 x 18.1 cm (3 1/2 x 8 1/16 x 7 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Textile and Fiber Arts
