The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Chilkat blankets, created by a complex form of tapestry twining, are the best-known textiles of the Northwest Coast. Emblems of nobility, they are prized for their crest significance, as well as for their beauty and fine workmanship. The labor-intensive process used to create a Chilkat blanket includes procuring and processing the materials, spinning the mountain goat wool wefts and the cedar bark and wood warps, dying the wefts, and weaving the blanket. The highly abstract designs of crest animals on Chilkat blankets fill the entire design space. The center panel of this design represents a diving whale, with the broad head filling the lower half while the spread-out tail flukes occupy the space along the upper border. A rectangular human face appears in the center of the whale's body.

Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art.

Museum Purchase: Helen Thurston Ayer Fund.

Gift of Miss Henrietta E. Failing.

Gift of Miss Henrietta E. Failing.

Rectangular plaited basket. Base is wide, curving up into tall, straight walls, with bottom corners defined. Top portion is in a loose ‘x’ weave with a tight rim that rolls outward. Decoration is several horizontal lines of dark brown and red imbrication, in sets of two.

Rectangular woven basket in a tight, square weave. Base is a small rectangle, and walls flare out toward the wide mouth. The exterior is decorated by thick vertical stripes of imbrication containing evenly spaced red and light brown horizontal lines. There are three stripes on each of the basket’s long sides, and two on the short.

Rectangular woven basket. Base is a rectangle, and walls flare out toward the wide mouth. The exterior is decorated on the top third with short, thin, horizontal strips of dark imbrication. On three sides, the mid-portion has vertical lines in red and black patterns while on the fourth side are stripes of red and black imbrication at the rim.