Curly basket, red & Natural '03 Clara Keezer, Passamaquoddy -NEA Heritage award

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Part of a collection of mostly Maine Indian baskets that I will be offering - belongs to a gentleman who collected these from mid 1960's to 2004. He will soon be retiring to a smaller home/apartment and has asked me to help downsize his collection. He wants these sold so - THESE ARE BEING AUCTIONED - starting with VERY LOW opening bids. - You will likely not have the opportunity to get baskets by these basketmakers at such great deals any time soon- if ever. Auctions of this gentleman's baskets will likely be running thru Feb. Many of these baskets were purchased from me, "American Native downeast store - Barnybars". I sell current work by Clara Keezer- whose basket is offered here. This is a 10+ year old basket, in perfect shape. But the price difference reflects that it is "used", and like a 10 year old car.... Not expected to be worth nearly as much as a brand new one. - (BUT give it another 30 o4 40 years... like a car... and it will be worth more than a "new" one) Clara Keezer still makes this curly style of basket. This is one of her 4" ones.. that diameter at top and that high to lid. This basket is part of a collection described above and is being offered with a very low opening bid. (new these sell for $140-175) Should you want a similar one brand new - check out my ebay store thru link on this page. This one has slight fading of the red on one side ... exposed to bright sunlight there for years... new ones will not be faded! (keep these out of sunlight!) Basket here is 4" to top of lid and 4" widest diameter with the bow ribbon handle adding another .5" to overall height. (4.5") . Clara's baskets woven after 2002 come with a card that describes her as a NEA heritage fellow - won in 2002. This basket comes with the NEA card - shown in one of the photos in slideshow above. It has a sweetgrass braid between inner and outer rims on the basket rim - the braid between the rims, the bow ribbon handle and the perfect curlicues - all are classic Clara Keezer trademark designs/elements. Clara Keezer, was a recipient of a prestigious NEA Heritage fellowship award in 2002 for her efforts in keeping a traditional art, basketry here, alive. Clara is well known and much respected for her baskets, her artistry and technical perfection in her craft and for teaching younger tribal members her art - two of her sons are excellent basketmakers and currently she is mentoring her niece. Clara is in her 80's and is in poor health. She carries portable oxygen and is in a wheelchair, yet this year made some gorgeous baskets for the 2012 Hudson Museum/Maine Indian Basketmaker's Alliance basket sale early in Dec. Made of brown ash, traditional basketry material of the Maine and Eastern Canadian Indian basketmakers. This has plain tidal sweetgrass wrapping the rim of the basket and the lid and uses braided tidal sweetgrass as one of the weavers for the top of the lid. This collection - described in more detail above - includes some antique Maine Indian baskets and more current baskets by Clara Keezer and her sons, Rocky & Kenny Keezer -also baskets Pam Cunningham, Kim Bryant and several other basketmakers. Each basket will be up for auction for a week... Look frequently from now until end of Feb to find baskets by your favorite basketmaker. All baskets have a low opening bid - an opportunity to own great baskets for much less than current work. read more

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